


Partnership

by 10_lanterns_and_a_dreamcatcher



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), Iron Fist (TV), Jessica Jones (TV), Luke Cage (TV), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Aliens, Amnesia, Bonding, Flashbacks, Gen, Human Experimentation, Kidnapped Peter Parker, Kidnapping, Other characters will appear, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Team Bonding, Tony wants his kid back, Torture, hitman/assassin, random hydra soldiers, venom doesn't have a gender, working together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-05-13 20:31:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14755811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10_lanterns_and_a_dreamcatcher/pseuds/10_lanterns_and_a_dreamcatcher
Summary: It was a normal day for Peter, he didn't miss his alarm, wasn't late for school and the black eye Captain America had given him had faded.But HYDRA didn't care about that.Hunted down and kidnapped, Peter endures a month of Hell. Given the same treatment that was given to the Winter Soldier. HYDRA attempts to re-create their perfect assassin.(This is before Homecoming so both May and Ned don't know Peter is Spiderman)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Paint it Black](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/383666) by Queen of Crystallopia. 



Sunlight streamed through the window, bathing the room in a warm light. The sun’s light shone defiantly into Peter’s face, rousing him from his pleasant dream. Slowly he opened his eyes and groggily looked at his alarm. For once, he had woken before his alarm meaning he had a few minutes to himself to just lay curled in his bed. Eventually, he pulled himself out of his warm cocoon of blankets and changed into his cleanest science pun t-shirt and jeans. Going to the bathroom to clean himself up, he checked his eye in the mirror. The bruising, a bright red the previous day had faded to a faint yellow and green which was barely noticeable. Going back to his room and placing the book’s that he’d need for school into his bag, he headed towards the kitchen.

“Hey, May,” he said as he walked towards the fridge and grabbing a yoghurt and a spoon from the draw.

“Good morning, Peter” May replied. “How’s your eye?” she asked.

“It’s okay, the bruising is pretty much all gone now.”  
May raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Really? It looked pretty bad yesterday.”

Peter shrugged in response. “yeah, I guess the bruising wasn’t that deep. It probably looked worse than it was, which is lucky. I was not looking forward to going back to school with a black eye.”

Peter checked the time on the clock. “I’ve got to go, May, otherwise I’ll miss my train and be late for school. I promised Ned I’d meet up with him before class.” Throwing the empty yoghurt container into the bin and the spoon into the sink, he jogged out the door calling out a quick “Bye!” and hearing May call back a “See you later!”

\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Time skip – Lunchtime  
\--------------------------------------------------------------

Sitting at their usual table, Peter and Ned discussed their plans for the weekend. “So you’ll come over to my place so that we can start building this new Lego set I got, right?” Ned asked Peter. “Yeah, that sounds right. I may have to leave early, Y’know? For the Stark internship?”

“I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me about that, I thought we told each other everything,” Ned complained, eyes downcast.

“I’m sorry, Ned. I didn’t even know I’d gotten it until Tony Stark showed up in my living room to say that I’d been accepted. I honestly thought I wouldn’t get it” Peter felt terrible about lying to Ned, but this was one thing he could not share with him. He had to protect him, and May, from the bad guys, that he fought. He didn’t know what he’d do if they got hurt because of him.

“I can’t believe you actually met Tony Stark! You know he…” Ned’s voice faded into background noise as Peter spotted Liz entering the cafeteria. He couldn’t help it, she looked so beautiful. Yeah, he had a huge crush on her.

“Yo, Earth to Peter, you listening to me, dude?” Ned’s voice broke through the fog surrounding him as he jerked his head back around to face his friend.

“Huh?” he said eloquently. Ned just shook his head fondly at his best friend. “Man, you’ve got it bad. Just go up and talk to her. We see her all the time in decathlon practice, remember?”

Peter flushed a bright red. “It’s not the same, I mean… She’s a senior! Why would she want to talk or even hang out with a nerdy sophomore like me?” he bemoaned.

Luckily, the bell signifying the end of lunch rang, cutting off whatever else Ned had to say. “C’mon, dude. We’ve got bio now.” Peter said, throwing the rubbish leftover from his lunch away.

\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Another Time skip  
\--------------------------------------------------------------

It was now the end of school and Peter had decided to patrol in his new suit before going home. However before he could get into his Spidey suit, he noticed a black van had been following him for a few blocks now. Quickening his pace, he noticed the van speed up. With the beginnings of panic unfurling in his chest, Peter broke out into a sprint, glad that the streets were relatively empty so that he could pick up speed.

This didn’t last long as when he turned to check if the van was still following him, he crashed into a person.

“I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed before getting a good look at the guy he’d crashed into. The man was much larger than Peter first realised and was wearing dark tactical gear with a firearm barely concealed on his person. Peter backed up a few steps before hitting another person dressed similarly. 

That’s when he realised that he’d walked into an ambush.

Before he could plan an escape route, the guy he’d crashed into trying to escape the van grabbed him by the neck with his arm. Peter kicked out with his legs and pulled at the guy’s arm with his hands. He managed to pull himself free and bolted down an alley.

“Fang ihn!” was shouted from the entrance of the alley. It might have been German or another European language, Peter wasn’t sure. Right now all he could think was how was he going to get out of this. He climbed up the fire escapes towards the roof of the building. Once he got to the top he quickly hid behind a chimney. Checking his pockets for his phone, he almost cried when he couldn’t find it. How was he supposed to get help now? He couldn’t call anyone, not the police, not his aunt or Tony Stark.

Biting on to his sleeve to muffle his cries, he tried to calm his panicked heartbeat, maybe they wouldn’t see him here and they’d leave and he’d be able to go home, hug May and pretend this never happened.

He heard the pounding of boots on the metal frame of the fire escape as well as angry commands in another language. Curling up into a tight ball, he closed his eyes and prayed for them to leave and not find him.

“Verdammt! Verteilt euch, findet ihn. Er kann nicht weit gegangen sein.” Peter jumped at the loud command, only a few meters from him. A small whimper was all it took for one of the men to find him. His shadow loomed over the boy's small frame. Peter looked up, face paling at the sight of the gun pointed at him. He was so distracted by the man’s gun that he didn’t notice the other soldiers move around behind him.

“Please…” He whispered. “Please leave me alone.” 

This time it was two men that held him down while a third came forward with a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

“No! Get off me! Let me go!” Peter called out in terror as his head was roughly pulled to the side, exposing his neck. He struggled as much as he could but it was too late. The needle was pushed into his neck and the liquid forced into his bloodstream.

Almost immediately a cold feeling started spreading from his neck as the world started spinning. He felt his limbs turn numb as the fell limply to his sides. The next few moments were a blur. He felt the vague sensation of being carried and his limbs being restrained behind his back. The next thing he knew he was being placed on a cold, hard, metallic floor that moved, jerking every so often. Then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

The Next Morning – Outside Midtown

Ned stood outside the entrance of midtown looking over the heads of the student masses, looking for the familiar mop of hair that was Peter’s. He checked his phone to see if Peter had texted him, but there were no new messages since he had texted him last night. He was starting to get worried, Peter normally did not just ignore him. Peter always eventually answered his texts but there was nothing since after they left school yesterday. Deciding he’d waited long enough, he headed into the school. 

It was later in the day when there was a decathlon practice. Peter still hadn’t shown up and Ned was getting slightly worried but figured that Peter was either sick and his phone was dead or he’d gone to his internship at Stark Industries and forgotten to say. Which was still incredibly cool. 

“Is Peter not here yet?” Mr Harrington asked the team. He was met with shakes of heads. “No, sir. No one’s seen him since yesterday.”

It was at this moment that Ned’s phone rang. He quickly checked it and was about to dismiss it when he saw the caller ID. “hang on, Sir.” He said. “Peter’s aunt is calling me. Maybe she’ll tell us where Peter is.”

“Put it on speaker, please Ned.” The rest of the decathlon team all turned to Ned giving the phone their full attention. Ned accepted the call

“Hey May, everything okay?” Ned asked.

“Hi Ned, I’m so sorry to call you while you’re at school but I have to know if Peter’s with you or not. And if he is, can you remind him to ask me if he’s going to spend the night. I would tell him myself but I can’t get through to him on his phone.”

Everyone looked at each other. “um… May? Peter didn’t go home with me yesterday, do you mean he didn’t get home last night? He’s not been in school all day either.” Ned replied, voice trembling.

“Oh my God. Okay… No Peter didn’t come home last night. Right, I’m gonna go call the police. If you hear from him, see him, anything. Call me okay, Ned?”

“Yeah, Yeah, definitely. I will let you know if I see him. Do… do you want me to let the teachers know?” Ned asked hesitatingly while looking at Mr Harrington.  
“Yes. Thank you, Ned. Don’t worry okay, Sweetie? We’ll find him. I’ve got to go now. I’ll let you know if the police find anything.” May ended the call. Ned sat, pale-faced and trembling in his seat. Mr Harrington took that as his cue.

“Don’t worry Ned, I’ll let the teachers know about the situation. You sit there and calm down, okay?” He left the room, pulling out his phone to call the relevant teachers to inform them.

The other students watched in stunned silence. Even Michelle had put down her book to watch. There wasn’t even a nasty comment to leave Flash’s mouth as he looked down at his shoes, too shocked to speak.  
Liz approached Ned. “Don’t worry, okay Ned. Peter will be fine. You’ll see.” She wrapped her arms around his shaking form. “Everything will be fine.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Unknown Location  
\--------------------------------------------------------------

He came around slowly. It wasn’t like in the movies where the character awoke with a gasp and sitting straight up. One moment everything was dark, the next he was aware. Brightness was his first impression. The walls were a stunning white that momentarily blinded him. Slowly his eyes adjusted to the light and he could take stock of his surroundings. 

What he saw horrified him. He was in a room filled with medical equipment. He saw syringes in one tray, scalpels in another. Along with tubes and bags holding coloured liquids, there was also a mirror that covered nearly an entire wall, leaving enough space for a door. Peter would bet his entire Lego Star Wars collection that it was a two-way mirror. He could see his reflection, pale and trembling. It was then that he realised that he was only wearing his underwear, the rest of his clothes were missing. This made him blush furiously in embarrassment. 

He tried to move his arms and legs only to find them held in place by metal straps. He started to struggle harder, the cold metal straps biting into his wrists and ankles. 

“Let me go. Let me go! Let me GO!” he shouted out to the empty room, echoes bouncing around until they faded. Peter huffed out a shaky sigh. The door opened and a man wearing a black lab coat entered the room 

“Ah, I see our test subject is awake. Don’t struggle too hard now, we don’t want you to be too damaged before we’ve begun now, do we?” He said with a sinister smirk on his face.

“B…begun? Begun what?!” Peter asked desperately, still pulling at his restraints. The man tutted in response and walked over to the table containing the syringes. Turning back to the restrained boy, he held up the syringe as if examining it, before walking closer, a needle positioned to inject into his arm.

“No, what is that? Get away from me!” Peter’s struggling increased as the man held his arm down and injected the liquid.

“Not to worry, It’s just a paralytic to keep you still. No need for you to thrash around and mess up the procedure.”

Hot tears started to spill from Peter’s eyes as the drug took effect. He was still conscious, but his limbs refused to respond to him. The door opened once again as more scientists in black lab coats filled the room. One of them spoke into a recorder.

“Commencing the first test. The subject is conscious but paralysed to allow testing more easily. Subject appears to be in mid-teens with brown hair and eyes. No piercings are visible. The subject is also in peak physical condition, with well-developed muscles.”

Another scientist was setting up IV stands, one on his left side and one on his right. As he was unable to move his body, all he could do was follow their work with his eyes. He flinched as one scientist rubbed a cold gel on the crooks of his arms. 

“Inserting the IV for the nutrients now, Doctor” Peter tried to hold on to his whimper as the needle was pushed into the vein in his left arm. 

“It’s a shame we can’t establish a baseline. I’d love to be able to study him closer. Alas, the higher-ups want this done quickly.” The scientist who entered first murmured to himself. He really needed to name these guys, Peter thought absentmindedly. He decided he was gonna call this guy Crazy Scientist Guy for pretty obvious reasons.

“Is the serum ready?” Crazy Scientist Guy asked one of his minions. “Yes, Doctor. The serum is ready for administration on your command.”

Peter looked to his right and saw that the IV bag filled with some type of blue liquid had been placed on the stand. He was startled out of his thoughts by another minion scientist started inserting the needle into his right arm. He watched the blue liquid slowly start to enter his bloodstream.

At first, nothing happened, then a feeling similar to pins and needles started up in his right arm. The feeling slowly grew in intensity until it was just full-blown pain. Peter cried out as the pain reached unimaginable levels. Distantly he heard someone screaming and pleading for it to stop. Vaguely he realised that it was him that was screaming. The pain carried on for what felt like hours, it was made even worse by the fact that he couldn’t curl away from the pain as he was strapped down.

Just when he thought his heart would burst from how fast it was beating, the pain started to decrease along with his screams. He was left panting, body heaving from sucking in as much air as he could. The occasional sob would escape his throat, alerting him to the fact that his throat was sore.   
‘Probably torn up from the screaming’ a dark thought crossed his mind.

“Serum administration appears to be successful, sir.” One of the minions, a woman this time, said. “Shall we proceed with the second part?” she inquired.

“We shall. Pass me a scalpel.” Crazy Scientist Guy commanded. 

The minion with the recorder stated, “Serum administration appears to have been a success, testing to see if enhanced healing reacts as it should.” Peter hated the way they spoke, it was too clinical as if they weren’t torturing a kid. He watched as Crazy Scientist Guy placed a scalpel to his stomach.

“Please,” he begged hoarsely “Please let me go” he watched as his words did nothing. Fingers twitching slightly as the scalpel was not removed. Tears streamed down his face as he closed his eyes. However, they quickly opened again as the Crazy Scientist Guy made a long deep cut into his stomach area. Crying out in pain, Peter found he could move his limbs, if only slightly.

“Doctor, we may have to re-administer the paralytic. He’s regaining mobility.” Another minion said. ‘How many are there!?’ Peter thought desperately. The doctor thought for a moment before looking down at the gash on the boy’s stomach. Eyes widening as he saw the cut stitch itself back together before his eyes. 

“There’s no need. I have a feeling he’ll just burn through it considering how fast this wound is healing” Crazy Science Guy said. “We’ll have to work quickly, get the MGS serum ready.”

The IV that contained the Blue serum was removed and replaced with another bag containing a yellow liquid. The needle was quickly inserted back into his right arm and the bag containing the serum was squeezed to speed up the process.

“Couldn’t you have mixed them to make one green solution?” Peter rasped, falling back on humour to cover up how scared he was. 

“Quiet, subject. You are not to speak again. Understood?” Crazy Science Guy spat.

“Jeez, someone’s in a bad mood,” Peter responded. He knew he should shut up. These scientists could do whatever they wanted to him. He wondered if anyone had noticed if he was missing, surely May would have noticed when he didn’t come home after school. Would Mr Stark have noticed if he didn’t check in?

“Enough! You will be silent!” snapping his fingers at one of his minions, he snatched a gag from their hands and roughly placed it over Peter’s mouth. Now Peter was barely able to make a sound let alone speak.   
“Mmhhh! Mmh Mhhhmmhh!” Was all he could get through the gag. Laying his head back on the table, Peter resigned himself to wait for someone to rescue him. Any second now, Mr Stark would knock down that door and save him.

The yellow serum slowly flowed through his system. Unlike the blue serum, this one didn’t cause pins and needles, instead, it was an icy cold that chilled him to his bone. A fogginess descended upon him as everything started to blur and spin.

“Mmmhh?” he mumbled through the gag as he slowly started to pass out again.

“Don’t worry, Mr Parker. The serum tends to make people drowsy. That’s what you are experiencing right now. When you wake up, conditioning and training will commence.” Crazy Scientist Guy spoke, his words echoing around Peter’s head. When he deciphered them, a zing of panic shot up his spine as he weakly struggled against his bonds.

“Oh, and Mr Parker? Welcome to HYDRA.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... This chapter ended up being longer than anticipated, so I've split it into two parts. Next part should be up soon, maybe tomorrow.   
> Please let me know if I've got the characters right. Thanks for all the support I got in the first chapter, it's amazing that so many of you like it. I honestly thought no one would like it, so thank you!  
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I felt absolutely terrible about what I put Peter through. I just want him to get all the hugs.  
> See you in the next chapter! :)


	3. Chapter 3

Peter awoke to find himself in another room. This room, however, was not as bright as the room he was in beforehand. He was also not strapped down to a table, instead, he was strapped to a chair reminiscent of a dentist’s chair. He moved his arms to find that he was still bound, but it was not just his wrists and ankles that were bound this time. There were metal cuffs also on his biceps, calves and thighs. Tensing his arms and legs, he tried to break his metal restraints.

“Don’t waste your time, those restraints are made from Vibranium. You won’t be able to break them.” An emotionless voice sounded from his left. Turning his head to look, through fuzzy vision, he saw it was Crazy Science Guy.

“Oh no, not you again. Haven’t you gotten bored yet?” Peter mumbled, trying to get his eyes to remain focused. The main shot him an unimpressed glare whilst fiddling with something behind the teen’s head.

“So… What’s up, doc? What’re you doing back there? Anything interesting?” Peter snarked back at the man, pretending to be unbothered by the man’s silence, but in reality, he was disturbed by the lack of response. Previously, the man had told him to shut it, but now… nothing? It didn’t make sense to Peter’s confused and muddled mind.

“I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. You won’t be able to tell anyone, anyway.” Now that alarmed Peter. What did that mean?

“In a few moments, you will no longer be able to recall your memories. We will take them from you and you will believe that you have always been HYDRA’s loyal soldier. Then you will be sent to a training facility in Siberia to condition you into the perfect killing machine, honing you into becoming a deadly weapon… Just like the Winter Soldier. We actually have high hopes that you’ll surpass him in all areas.”

After his little monologue, Peter could feel his breathing pick up. Slamming his mental walls up the best he could, he swallowed his fear and spoke.

“So, not a lot then.” He said and was proud that his voice did not tremble. “If you don’t mind me asking, why Siberia?”

The man looked down at his captive with disdain. “Unfortunately, we do not have the necessary equipment to do a full conditioning here. You can thank the Avengers for that since they have destroyed most of our American bases.”

Peter felt his heart leap at hearing the man say, Avengers. Surely Mr Stark had to know that he was missing by now. Aunt May had definitely noticed by now, Peter was sure of it. God, he hadn’t even thought about Ned. How was he? Was he wondering where his best friend was? Peter hoped he was okay. With a moment of startling clarity, he realised that he may not remember any of them in the next few moments.

Desperately, he hoarded every memory he had of being with his aunt, and with Ned. Hell, he even tried to memorise all the moments he’d had with the decathlon team (yes even Flash) just so that he could hold on to his humanity. He tried to memorise the amazing trip he had to Berlin with Mr Stark, but he heard something behind him whirring as it activated.

He saw two metal plates enter his vision. One lowered so that it was on the right side of his face while the other covered the entirety of the left side of his face. Crazy Science Guy reappeared in his vision, grabbing his chin harshly he forced something rubber into his mouth.

“Do not spit that out.” He cautioned. “That will stop you from shattering your teeth and jaw.” For once, Peter was going to listen to the Crazy Science Guy. Instead, he focused on every happy moment he’d had in his life hoping he could retain any memory even if it was just slightest hints.

The machine’s whirring reached its peak and Peter’s world descended into pain. He could feel the electricity flickering over his head and face like hot ribbons. distantly, he recognised that he was screaming, but his mind went into overdrive. Pulling himself from the pain, he focused on May’s smile, on Ned’s laugh. But that didn’t stop his memories from being snatched away.

Peter’ He thought. ‘My name is Peter Benjamin Parker. I’m fifteen. My best friend is Ned Leeds. I live with my aunt, May. I like Thai food. I’m Spider-Man.’ It was a mantra he repeated in his head. Trying to remember everything important to him. But it was useless, he started forgetting pieces.

‘My name is Peter. Best friend – Ned. Aunt – May. Spider-Man.’

‘Peter. Ned. May. Spider-Man’

‘Peter. May. Spider? Spider-Man.’

‘Pe-? Peter. Spider'

‘Peter.’

…

Who am I?

Slowly the boy opened his eyes and looked around the room he was in. It was dark and he didn’t recognise it. He searched his memories only to come up blank. He didn’t know anything, not even his name. He managed to catch a vague memory floating in his head before it vanished. It wasn’t much, just an impression of a smile, kind brown eyes. The memory sent a surge of warmth through him and he clung to it like a life-line, not willing to let it go, lest it disappears forever. It was his only memory, he’d be damned if he let it go. Slowly, that vague impression of a smile grew into a vague impression of a person. She was definitely a woman. Perhaps his mother? He had a feeling he called her something beginning with ‘M’.

The door to his room opened, suddenly, startling the boy out of his musings. “Ah, Asset Seven! Good to see you awake.” A man wearing a black lab coat said. The boy had the strangest feeling that this guy was crazy. He wasn’t sure where that feeling came from.

“W… What? What’s Asset Seven? Where am I? Who are you? … Who am I?” the boy asked nervously, hunching in on himself to make himself smaller. The man smiled as if this was exactly what he wanted to hear. Something in his eyes made the boy want to run far away, fast.

“Why you are Asset Seven, of course!” The man said jovially. “As for where we are, We’re in Siberia. You suffered quite the blow to the head, I’m afraid and it seems as though it’s caused some amnesia. As for who I am... Well, I am the doctor in charge of you.”

The boy frowned to himself. It didn’t sound right to him, but who was he to judge? He had no memories! The man took his silence for acceptance and gestured for the boy to follow him.

“Come, now that you are better we can resume your training” The boy followed dutifully behind the man, giving a glance to the heavily armed soldiers on the other side of the door. The man noticed his gaze and clapped a hand on his shoulder, making the boy jump.

“Don’t worry about them, Asset Seven. They’re just there for safety reasons. They will also be helping to train you.”

With that said, the boy was lead down the long halls, not knowing what was in store for him.

 

Time Skip – 2 weeks after Peter went missing 

 

Midtown just wasn’t the same without Peter, Ned thought to himself as he walked down the corridor to his locker. It was too quiet now, without his friend to gush over Star Wars with. There were posters up on notice boards displaying Peter’s face on them as well as a phone number that people were to call if they saw him or had any information on his whereabouts.

May was a complete wreck. Ned remembered the last time he saw her, she was pale, thin and had dark bags under her eyes. The police had found nothing on Peter’s disappearance. All they had found were peters finger-prints on a fire-escape and more worryingly, drops of his blood on a roof by a chimney. They also found his phone, smashed beyond use, which explained why he hadn’t called anyone for help. But there was nothing to suggest who had taken Peter or why. It seemed they had taken his bag as well, which confused Ned. Why would whoever had taken Peter take his bag as well? No offence to his friend, but he didn’t really have anything valuable in it.

‘Unless they took it as a trophy.’ The thought sickened Ned so he shoved it away into a dark corner of his mind to never think it again.

“Hey, Loser!” Ned was startled out of his thoughts by Michelle calling him. He looked at her with dull eyes.

“What do want, Michelle?” he asked quietly once she was close enough to hear him. He rarely spoke loudly these days.

“The decathlon team and I have put together a search party to find Peter. Some other students and teachers are going to join in. You interested?” She asked, eyes looking intensely into his own as if she was daring him to decline. For the first time in nearly two weeks, Ned felt a spark of hope light in his chest.

“Yes! Yes, of course, I’ll help! When do we start?” Michelle smirked appreciatively at him as if he had just passed a test. 

“Cool your jets, Leeds. We’re gonna start at four PM today. Has to be at four so that it gives People time to get home, drop off their school stuff and get back to the meeting point.” She explained. “The meeting point will be right outside the school gates and we’re gonna retrace Peter’s route, see if we can find anything the police missed.”

Ned nodded, gratefully. “Thank you so much, Michelle. Should I call May and let her know what’s going on?”

“I think you should, I mean, It’s her nephew we’re trying to find, right?” she said logically. Ned nodded once again, agreeing.

“Yeah, I’ll call her now. I have a free period and I think she has time off work right now.”

 

(POV change)

 

May felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Fishing it out she checked the caller ID before answering.

“Hi, Ned. How are you sweetie?” she asked tiredly.

“Hey May, I just wanted to let you know that a group of us are going to go out later to search for Peter if you wanted to join in. Don’t worry it will be completely safe, there will be teachers with us.”

May smiled at her nephew’s friends willingness to find him. “That’s kind of you, Ned. I’m kind of in the middle of something right now, but I’ll try to meet up with you later okay?” 

Ned answered immediately, “Yeah, That’s fine! No pressure! I’ll see you later then, Oh we’re meeting up outside the school at four and retracing Peter’s steps from there.”

“Thank you, Ned. I’ll try to be there. I’ll text you if I can’t” May smiled gently into her phone as the line disconnected. That smile dropped, however, when she turned back to the person in front of her, holding her nephew's school bag.

“Talk.” She said to a quiet and still Tony Stark.

 

Another Time Skip

 

It had been a hellish month for the Boy named Asset Seven. The training the Crazy Doctor said he’d go through was more like torture. The trainers pushed his body to the limits, mistakes were not tolerated. Every misstep meant an extra hour on the medical table. He hated the medical table. It was where the doctors would try to boost his immunity and tolerance to different chemicals. They’d also test his healing factor, seeing what he could and could not heal from. This was how they found out that his healing factor was exceptional.

He could heal from broken bones in minutes, cuts and sprains even less. He barely bruised anymore. Another memorable moment was finding that he could heal from damaged nerves. This fascinated the doctors to no end, claiming it was a medical miracle. However, they were unable to replicate the effects. Every test subject injected with his mutated DNA died horrifically.

He was back in his room again, well, it was more like a prison cell. It was small, his entire bed covered one wall and there was just one small window which was his only glimpse of the outside world. The world looked white. White and cold. He often saw soldiers patrolling outside and they were always wearing thick clothing, which was more than he could say about his clothes. 

His clothes consisted of a thin black t-shirt and grey jogging bottoms that were a size too big. However, his tactical gear was completely different. It was completely black, tailored to his size and allowed for complete mobility, which helped his enhanced agility. The suit also allowed for a range of weapons to be attached. His favourites were his knives, specifically his Karambit knives. They were his favourite because he was allowed to custom design them as a reward for good behaviour and making no mistakes during training.

(The handles were dark red and the blades black. On both blades was the inscription ‘Liberum Mortis’ meaning ‘Death is Freedom’)

Seven, as he refused to refer to himself as an asset, was currently lying in his bed. He had no training and all his missions had been completed. He was absentmindedly swinging his knife forwards and backwards in his hand when an alarm blasted from the corridor. Sitting up at the sudden loud noise he noticed that his door was not fully locked. Cautiously approaching and pushing it open, he looked down the corridor, seeing his guards disappear around a corner.

Sliding through the open gap, he left his room. Quietly closing the door and walking in the opposite direction of the guards. Seven had no idea what he was doing or why he left his room. Something was encouraging him to escape. Maybe it was the woman from his memories? He was desperate to find her, just to know who she was. She was not any of the soldiers or doctors at the facility, he’d checked. 

The facility was eerily empty, but with his enhanced hearing he could hear shouting coming from the lower levels, where the experiments took place. The boy shuddered at the thought of that place, it haunted his every dream. Hearing heavy boots pounding on the hallway floor ahead of him, he quickly opened a door and hide inside. He waited until the noises faded away, before sighing in relief.

That relief dissipated when he realised he was not alone in the room. Turning around he realised that all the lights were off. Whether they had been turned off or smashed he didn’t know. Nor did he care to know as through the darkness, he could make out a form. A form that was huge, had white eyes and was currently growling at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh! What's gonna happen next? Hope you enjoyed! The latin is from Google Translate so, once again I don't know if it is accurate. If you have any ideas as to what you would like to see in this fic, let me know! Suggestions are welcome! 
> 
> Please let me know if there are any spelling errors as this is not Beta read. If anyone is interested in being a Beta, let me know in the comments. :)


	4. Chapter 4

**(Two weeks after Peter was kidnapped)**

May looked accusingly at the billionaire who was holding her nephew’s bag.

 

“I said talk.” She said, her voice frighteningly calm. “Explain to me how you ended up with my missing fifteen-year-old nephew’s school bag, because, Mr Stark, this is not looking good for you.”

 

Stark looked up and quickly reassured the angry aunt. “No, no, no, no. I have nothing to with Peter’s kidnapping. I’m just returning his bag to you. I found it in an alley Last week and…”

 

“Last _Week?!_ Why did it take you so long to bring it back?!” she exclaimed furiously. Stark seemed to get feed up with being shouted at and snapped back.

 

“Because I wanted to find any shred of evidence as to where he was taken!” He sighed tiredly, rubbing a hand over his face. Placing Peter’s bag on the table he sat down in the chair.

 

“The only thing I found were fingerprints that led to a dead man.” May closed her eyes and sat down in the opposite chair.

 

“What else can we do? Please, I just want my nephew back!” It was the straw that broke the camels back as May descended into sobs. Stark quickly stood up and went to comfort the woman. Closing his eyes, he made a decision.

 

“… There is something I can do.” He said haltingly. May sniffed and looked at him with watery eyes.

 

“What? What can we do?” Stark stepped away from her and reached into his suit pocket and pulled out an old flip phone. It wasn’t the sort of thing May thought Stark would be caught dead with.

 

“How’s a little phone going to help?” Stark just smirked at her.

 

* * *

 

**Wakanda**

Steve Rogers was visiting Bucky in Wakanda. Due to the amazing skills of Shuri, sister of T’Challa, all the conditioning that HYDRA had put in his head had been removed, leaving him free of his Winter Soldier persona.

 

Right now, he and Steve were relaxing by the side of the lake in companionable silence. That silence, however, was broken by the shrill ringtone of a phone. Steve reacted immediately, grabbing the phone out of his pocket and accepting the call, placing it to his ear.

 

“Tony?” He breathed out.

 

 _“Hey, Cap. I’ve got a problem and I’ve hit a dead end… I, and it pains me to admit it, but I need your help. All of you, including the Winter Terminator.”_ Steve and Buck exchanged a look.

 

“Okay, what do you need?” Steve asked open, and ready to help. He could almost see Tony shake his head as he answered.

 

“ _Not over the phone. How soon can you get to the compound_?”

 

* * *

 

 

Seven couldn’t take his eyes off the figure, it seemed to be a part of the shadows. Even with his enhanced vision, he couldn’t see where the creature ended and the shadows started. He could feel a paralysing fear that locked up his legs. The creature drew nearer. Seven felt himself slide down the door as the creature’s face gained more definition. He tilted his face away and closed his eyes as long, sharp teeth grazed his cheek.

 

An involuntary whimper escaped his throat. Surprisingly the creature pulled away. **“You are a child.”** It stated with a growl. Its voice was weird, it had an echo-y quality to it as if it were two voices at once.

 

Slowly he opened his eyes to peer at the creature. Sucking in a breath he sat up and said; “I don’t know how old I am. I don’t have any memories past the last month. This month, however, has only memories of pain,” It may have been his imagination, but the creature’s eyes seemed to soften at his admission. As if prompted by his story, the creature spoke.

 

**“Our ship crash-landed on your planet a few months ago. These humans were the ones to find us. They captured and tortured us. Trying to pull us apart and learn how we work. What you see right now is merely us covering our host's body. We are a Symbiote and require a host to sustain ourselves. But… our host is dying even with our help. We fear this is the end for us.”**

Seven looked at the creature. It seemed so downtrodden that its last moments would be in the clutches of its torturers. “Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked softly. The creature looked up at him and assessed him with suspicious eyes.

 

**“Aside from becoming our host, we don’t believe so.”**

They sat in silence for what seemed like ages. Seven contemplated his choices. He could leave now, and never look back. He could escape into the world, be free to live his life how he wanted to. But something in him rebelled at the thought _‘You can’t just leave them like that! HYDRA tortured them like they tortured us! It’s not right.’_ The voice sounded suspiciously like his own, but there was a childish quality to it, a naivety that he no longer possessed. His other option would be to bond with this… Symbiote… and perhaps they could escape together? One thing for sure was that he was not going to stay in this facility any longer.

 

“What would it entail? Becoming your host, I mean?” he asked. “Would I still be able to take control? Will I get a say in what happens?”

 

The creature looked up in shock as if it was expecting the boy to just leave. **“You really want to bond with us?”**

“Depends. Will I still have control, or will I be pushed aside?” The creature paused, thinking over its answer.

 

**“We will only take over if the situation is dire or if you ask it of us. Does that sound fair? In any other situation, we will just be a voice in your head. We will also provide back-up if you require it. A symbiotic relationship is mutually beneficial. We gain a body to survive and our hosts become stronger.”**

Seven mulled it over in his head, looking for any loopholes that the creature could exploit. The only concerning part was what the creature would consider dire. However, he couldn’t ponder this for much longer as more boots stomped past on the other side of the door. They were running out of time.

 

“Okay, you’ve got a deal.” He said, automatically holding his hand out to shake. The creature reached forward and grasped his hand. Then it seemed like tar started to melt off of its body and start to crawl up his arm. Seven gasped at the silky texture of the creature as it flowed up his arm and covered the rest of his body.

 

The body that the Symbiote had previously occupied crumpled to the ground, barely breathing. Seven felt an unexpected wave of sadness crash over him. _‘Whoa, what’s with that?’_ he thought. Normally he didn’t feel sadness at seeing dead bodies.

 

**_‘Apologies, Young One. You are currently feeling our emotions for our former host. When we join our emotions will cross over to each other. What we feel, you feel and what you feel, we feel.”_ **

****

“That’s gonna take some time to get used to.” Seven mumbled to himself. He felt the Symbiote flow over his face in mockery of a mask. It was a relief, however, as all the input he was forced to bear day after day was dialled down. Letting out a relieved breath, it felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

 

“Thank you.” He breathed. **‘ _Of course. It’s like we told you. This is a mutually beneficial joining.’_**

****

Smirking under the mask, Seven kicked down the door and entered the hallway. Cocking his head, he looked towards the soldiers that had just rounded the corner.

 

“This is gonna be fun.” He said to both himself and the Symbiote. He could feel it’s excitement and anticipation at the prospect of a fight.

 

The next few hours were a blur of screams, bullets and blood. They ploughed through all the soldiers they came across. There was no mercy for any of them, especially not the scientists. Seven wasn’t sure if it was his rage or the Symbiote’s that he was feeling. Coming to the last room they hadn’t cleared out, they ripped the metal door off its hinges. Seeing who was in the room, they felt themselves smirk darkly.

 

 **“Well, if it isn’t the doctor.”** They spoke, voices merging into one echo-y monstrosity. The doctor cowered behind a desk, hands covering his head. Grabbing the doctor by his lab coat, they threw him against a wall. The doctor let out a startled shout of pain and terror.

 

Holding him against the wall by his throat, they leaned in so that they were face to face. The doctor’s eyes widened as the ‘mask’ split horizontally across in a terrifying smile filled with razor-sharp teeth. He gasped as he tried to draw a breath through his crushed windpipe.

 

**“We think we need to make an example of you.”**

(Time Skip)

 

 

A few hours later found Seven and the Symbiote in the cockpit of a jet, setting the coordinates to New York, they placed the jet on autopilot. Clenching and unclenching his fist, Seven gazed contemplatively out the window.

 

“What happened back there? I felt weird, I’ve never been that bloodthirsty before, nor that sadistic.” Seven asked quietly, not bothering to speak in his head. There was no one around so he didn’t have to pretend to be alone in his head.

 

**_‘It seems, in the heat of battle, our psyches became more closely woven together. Its where the sadism came from. On our planet, we were the most accomplished fighter, we worked our way through the ranks, defeating any foe we fought.’_ **

****

They both remained quiet after this, both thinking. The silence was interrupted by the Symbiote. Seven could feel its hesitance to ask its question. Looking at his reflection in the window he asked; “What?”

 

**_‘Why do you refer to yourself as a number? Do you not have a name?’_ **

****

Seven felt himself tense at the question. “If I had a name, I don’t remember it. Just another thing HYDRA took from me. The full title they give me is Asset Seven, but I refuse to be labelled as less than human, by calling myself seven, it allowed me to rebel if only a little.

 

The Symbiote was quiet in his mind. It was strange, feeling another’s presence in his head.

 

**_‘It’s not right, stripping someone of their name. Everyone has a name. Even we have a name!’_ **

****

“Oh yeah, what is your name? I don’t think you ever said. To be fair, I don’t think I ever asked for it. Sorry.”

****

**_‘It’s fine Little One. Our name is Venom.’_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! They're finally free! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and the introduction of more characters, especially Venom. Not sure if I did him justice but I did my best. This chapter took forever to write, I hit multiple blocks, so apologies if it's not good. Next chapter we should see Peter/Seven and Venom getting closer as they try to work out what to do next. Also, the Avengers will find Venom's 'Message'. See you then! :)


	5. Chapter 5

It was a tense standoff. The Avengers stood around a table in a conference room, Tony stood in front of the team. Rhodey stood behind him, offering silent support. The Rogue Avengers watched him cautiously, they stood closest to the door; the only exit.

 

“What’s this about, Stark?” Natasha asked. “This better not be a trap.”

 

This seemed to aggravate Stark. “Okay, listen. I have been awake for nearly four days, working my ass off, I have a distraught woman breathing down my neck demanding that I do something to help her, I do NOT have the time or patience for your paranoia!” Tony was breathing hard after his rant.

 

Rhodey placed a comforting hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Tones, breathe.” He said, trying to ground his friend.

 

Natasha put her hands up in a surrendering position. Steve broke in and tried to push the conversation back into friendly territories. “Okay, everyone calm down. We can handle this like adults. Tony, why did you call us?” he said with an authoritative tone.

 

In response to his question, Tony turned on a projector.  A picture of a young teen was shone onto a wall. “This is Peter Parker. Two weeks ago, he was kidnapped. I have searched nearly non-stop trying to find any clue as to his whereabouts and I’ve hit a roadblock. The only piece of evidence there is, leads to a dead man.”   

 

It took a moment for the Avengers to absorb all the information. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Stark, but why are you so concerned about this?” Sam asked.

 

“What? I can’t just be worried about a missing kid?” He asked Sardonically. Sobering, at the stern look Steve gave him, he became more serious. Steeling himself, he admitted, “The kid’s Spider-Man. He wouldn’t have just been taken by anyone, nor would he have run away. He loves his aunt too much.”

 

It was silent before the entire room erupted into protests.

 

“You brought a kid to Germany?!”

“What were you thinking?!”

“He could’ve gotten hurt!”

 

These were just some of the protests that Tony could make out in the verbal whirlwind that assaulted him

 

“I get it, okay! I messed up. I shouldn’t have brought a kid into this. Don’t you think I haven’t been beating myself up about this since he was taken?” Tony said, self-loathing evident in his tone.

 

“You don’t think that I haven’t been trying to console his aunt when I can barely look her in the eye? Oh, and just so you know, she has no idea why her nephew has been taken because she doesn’t know about his extracurricular activities!” Tony said in a falsely happy voice.

 

“Who’s the dead guy?” A quiet voice asked from the door. Everyone jumped and turned around, seeing it was Bucky, Steve relaxed while Tony tensed. In a clipped voice, the billionaire answered, “His name is Daniel Redding and he’s been dead for ten years.” He pressed a button and the picture changed to a young man.

 

Bucky sucked in a sharp breath. “I recognise him. He’s one of HYDRA’s soldiers.” This admission caused all in the room to tense up. None of them had forgotten DC or Sokovia. Wanda clenched her fists, she had not forgotten the experiments they had done on her. Although she had been consenting at the time, the memories still disturbed her and she had a feeling that this boy was not consenting.

 

She looked at the picture of Peter on another screen and felt her heart clench. He looked so young. The resemblance to her brother’s name also caused her pain. Someone this young did not deserve to be taken and used by HYDRA.

 

Tony looked at Barnes with intense eyes. “Do you remember where he was stationed?” he questioned. Barnes furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.

 

“I… It's muddled, things are in the wrong place, but I’m pretty sure it was in… Siberia.” He said looking apologetically at both Tony and Steve. Siberia held bad memories for all three of them.

 

“Well, that’s just perfect.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

Two weeks. It had taken an extra two weeks to search nearly every HYDRA base in Siberia. It turned out that there were more bases than they first realised. With every base they went through, they lost a little more hope as each base held no information as to where the kid was.

 

The next base they were gonna go to, was a base that was nestled in between two mountains.

 

“I swear to God. I’m getting really tired of these HYDRA minions” Tony said as he piloted the quinjet towards the base. The other Avengers murmured their agreements. They were tired and dirty, but they would not give up.  Aside from Stark, the other two that were determined to find the kid was Bucky and Natasha. They couldn’t bear the thought of what they had been through happening to a kid.

 

“Approaching destination now, Boss,” F.R.I.D.A.Y announced. The Avengers all geared up, ready for a fight. This base was larger than the other bases they had cleared out. However, once they got there they knew immediately that something was wrong. It was too quiet. Normally there would be a hum to the building, guards patrolling, but there was none of that.

 

“Somethings not right. Wilson, send your drone out and scan the area.” Stark said into the comms.

 

“His name is Redwing!” Sam exclaimed as he swooped overhead. “You really should have more respect for…” he trailed off.

 

Stark raised his eyes, waiting for Sam to finish his sentence. “Respect for what? Wilson? Care to finish your sentence?”

 

Sam was silent for a moment before audible swallowing. “I think I know the reason it’s so quiet, guys.” He said. Steve looked up, “What is it, Sam? What did you find?” he asked.

 

“Bodies. Lots of bodies.” Sam said, horrified. Now, Sam was a part of the army, he’d seen his fair share of blood and death, but this? This was something out of a horror movie. Corpses lay in pieces on the roof, all looking like they had tried to flee from something.

 

During his time lost in thought, Stark had patched through to Redwing’s video feed. “Jesus” Tony breathed out, feeling bile crawl up his throat. Disengaging his helmet, he breathed through his nose, trying to quiet the nausea he felt.

 

Wanda paled. She hadn’t meant to see the image, but Stark had been broadcasting so loudly that she had accidentally picked it up. Placing a hand over her mouth she muffled any sound that tried to escape.

 

“We have to go in.” Natasha said, “We need to find out what caused this, find out if anyone’s alive, so they can tell us where the kid is.”

 

Steve, unsubtle as he is, walked straight up to the door and ripped it open, walking in with a purpose. The others looked at each other and shrugged, following him, Bucky mumbling about punks under his breath.

 

The hallway, if possible, looked even worse than the roof. Blood painted the walls and mangled corpses littered the floor. It took some manoeuvring, but they were able to check each room without stepping on too many bodies. The whole place was eerily quiet and still. There was no sign of Peter.

 

Spreading out to the lower levels, they found other bodies, this time in black lab coats, meaning they were probably scientists.

 

Steve passed by one room that had a large glass tube which had been shattered. Glass laying on the floor around it. Looking back down the corridor, he saw Bucky frozen in one of the doorways, looking into a room.

 

Coming closer, Steve saw what had his friend so shaken. In the room was a large, sinister-looking machine. “You okay there, Buck?” He asked worriedly.

 

Bucky swallowed a few times before answering. “This is where conditioning would take place.”

 

Steve looked at him “Conditioning as in…?”

 

Bucky nodded, “Yeah, as in The Words. Jesus, Stevie, what did they do to this poor kid?”

 

They stood there in silence, hoping nothing like that had happened to the kid.

 

“Hey!” They turned to see Tony and Natasha coming towards them.

 

“Place is empty, aside from the bodies, but we got all the information on their files, we can go through it on the quinjet,” Stark said, motioning his head towards the exit. Suddenly a piercing scream sliced through the silence. Looking at each other, they realised who had screamed.

 

Wanda.

 

Bolting down the corridors towards where they heard the scream, they quickly found her. She was pressed against a wall opposite an open door, hands clasped over her mouth and eyes wide with terror and horror.

 

“Wanda! What is it? Are you okay?” Natasha quickly ran to her side and held on to her shoulders. Silently, Wanda just pointed into the room. The others turned and looked and saw exactly why she had screamed.

 

Hanging upside-down in the centre of the room was a man. He was bound by some sort or black substance, blood caked one side of his face, but that was not the most horrifying part. No. The most horrifying thing was that the top of his head had been removed and his brain was missing. Moving closer to the body, Steve noticed that there was a note pinned to his chest.

 

Peeling it off, he read what it said. Somewhere behind him, he heard Wanda vomit while Nat tried to calm her.

 

“What’s it say?” Steve turned to look at Stark. Wordlessly, he handed the note over. Stark breathed out a curse after he finished reading.

 

“We need to get back to the quinjet and find out what’s in those files. Find out what did this. Find Peter, there must be something.” Handing Steve the note back, he walked back toward the way they came in. Nat followed, supporting Wanda as she sobbed into her shoulder.

 

“What’s that about?” Bucky asked. Steve didn’t respond, re-reading the words on the note over and over, he closed his eyes.

 

“It seems like one of the Doctor’s experiments escaped and was not happy with him. Left a note. Says; ‘He took our mind, so we took his.’ We need to call a clean-up crew. I’ll call Fury, see if he can help.” Without another word, he followed his teammates back to the entrance, Bucky following behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this got dark. I may put up the rating. Sorry there's no Peter/Seven in this chapter, but I'm literally writing this at 1 AM and I'm tired. Don't worry though! There'll be a lot more of them in the next chapter.
> 
> Also, side note, Infinity War probably will NOT happen in this fic, so should I bring in the characters from Thor: Ragnarok?
> 
> See you next chapter! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank Patchykins for giving me inspiration for the Tony and Steve scene. They've also inspired another scene that will appear in the next chapter. just want to thank them because this chapter would have been a lot shorter than it is.
> 
> Anyway, as promised, more Peter/Venom bonding, but they're going to have things to work through in the next chapter, so that should be interesting!
> 
> Just want to give out a warning in advance, I probably won't be able to update on the 5th as I need to go to the hospital in Liverpool, its a few hours journey, and I have no idea how long I'll be or what time I'll be home. :(
> 
> Also, my little sister wants me to help her with a presentation she has to do for school so that may eat up my time. I will try to give you a really good chapter tomorrow to try and make up for it and I may post 2 chapters on the 4th if possible. :)

Venom remained a quiet passenger as the jet cruised through the sky. They pondered over what had happened in the last few hours. Not only had their ship been attacked and crashed onto this planet, but then they had been dragged from the wreck by natives that did not have the best intentions. Already, their host had been badly injured, and the experiments they had been forced to endure had not helped.

 

They were lucky that this boy, this fellow tortured soul, had agreed to be their host. They vowed that they would protect this child, help him in any way. Their strength would become his. But for now, they would let the boy sleep. In order to pass the time, Venom looked through the boy’s mind. They knew it was intrusive, but to find out how to help his new host, they needed to know the extent of what these torturers had done to him.

 

It had been a few minutes before Venom encountered a block. Where the memories should be, was a deep, black abyss with the memories shrouded in shadows. That wasn’t right. The memories should have been a flowing pool of colour, each memory flowing into another, but easily accessible to be called upon. It would take a while to recover from this. Perhaps they would be able to build a distress signal to call for a rescue ship to take them to Xandar, where they could possibly help the child.

 

They didn’t wish to call the boy; Seven, as it was not a proper name. Perhaps they could suggest different names for the child to use. This boy was special, they could feel it. A surge of protectiveness ran through him. He would rain hell down upon any who would harm him.

 

Seven was trapped in a nightmare. He was strapped to a cold table with faceless people surrounding him, cutting into him. His veins felt like acid flowed through them. He cried out, but no sound left his throat. He thrashed in his bonds. His vision swam until a different scene played in his head. This time he was upright, arms secured by metal contraptions on either side of his head. His eyes were kept open by metal prongs and a screen flashed different colours. The same four words repeated over and over. ‘ _Compliance will be rewarded.’_

**_‘Child, Awaken. It’s just a dream.’_** A voice called out to him. He still continued to thrash, trying to free himself from the metal bonds. He felt his brain prickle as if claws were raking over it. He screamed out in fear and desperation.

 

 ** _‘Little One, AWAKEN!’_** Seven jerked awake with a cry. Heaving out sobs, he curled up into a tight ball on the seat. Venom coiled their tendrils around Sevens body in mimicry of a hug. For a moment they just sat there, Venom holding him and hushing him.

 

“W… What was that?” Seven whispered. Venom was silent for a moment and Seven could feel the Symbiotes guilt. **_‘It may have been our fault.’_** They admitted.

 

**_‘We were attempting to find a way to help you regain your memories, but we may have ‘knocked loose’ a memory that you, yourself blocked. For that, we are sorry.’_ **

****

One of the benefits of being joined to the Symbiote was that he could feel their true feelings, and the symbiote felt true remorse that they had caused their host harm. Seven sighed deeply, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

 

“It’s okay. Just ask me next time, I’d like to know what’s going on in my head.” He felt the Symbiote’s eager agreeance. **_‘Yes, Of Course. We can agree to that.’_**

****

****

* * *

 

**Time Skip**

The jet landed in an empty warehouse district. Seven had scanned for any life-signs and found none for a few miles. Opening the jet, he hopped out and walked in the direction of civilization. Passing by a run-down house, he stole some of the clothes off of a washing line. He quickly threw on the oversized hoodie and pulled the hood over his head.

 

The sun was starting to go down, casting the street in an orange glow. **_‘Is this what your planet looks like?”_** Venom asked in awe, trying to take everything in at once.

 

 _‘I guess. I don’t remember being here, but then again, I don’t remember much of anything.’_ He thought back cynically. ‘ _T_ _he only places they let me go to were either Siberia or Russia, so everything I saw was either white or grey.'_

 

Turning down a dark alley, both Seven and Venom felt a strange tingling sensation run down their neck. They noticed that five young males had followed them and were now attempting to corner them.

 

“Well, well, well. Look what we’ve got here, boys. Some kid thinks he can just waltz through our territory. Guess we need to teach him a lesson.” One of the males, probably the ring-leader, slurred. The stench of alcohol was heavy on all of them, which made Seven wrinkle his nose in disgust.  _'Sometimes I really hate super senses'._ He thought both to himself and Venom. Venom silently agreed, not liking the smell or the people.

 

The thugs circled them, drunken jeering cheering the ring-leader on. He pulled out a switch-blade as if that made him scary. Seven looked at the guy, dispassionately.

 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He said in a monotone voice. The ring-leader scoffed.

 

“What? What you gonna do? Go cry to mommy?” He mocked, causing the others to laugh stupidly. “We gon’ show you what happens to idiots walking around by themselves.”

 

Seven could feel Venom growling in the back of his mind at the tone of the man. Looking around at the other thugs in the alley, Seven sighed.

 

“Alright, don’t say we didn’t warn you.” That seemed to make the ring-leader pause. “We?” he barely got out before Seven launched at him with inhuman speed, slamming his fist into the guy's throat, grabbing the arm with the blade and snapping it and kicking him at the backs of his knees causing the guy to fall down, chocking out a cry of pain. The whole thing took five seconds.

 

The other thugs backed up, muttering in alarm. “Man, I ain’t messin’ with a superpowered freak.” One muttered turning towards the entrance. The others agreed, hastily backing out the alley.

 

Just to give them extra incentive, Seven showed Venom his idea, which he happily obliged with. Turning the boy’s eyes white, and the surrounding veins black, an animalistic growl rumbled out of his throat. The cries of terror were almost music to their ears as the men scampered away.

 

Leaping straight up to the roof of a building, Seven started to casually walk on the rooftops. He felt much calmer on top of the buildings, and he allowed himself to enjoy the slight breeze that licked his face. It wasn’t as cold or as biting as the winds in Siberia or Russia. Seven allowed the tension to fade.

 

A sudden overwhelming hunger made itself known in his stomach, the growl rivalling the one Venom just gave. However, this hunger triggered a memory from when they were escaping the base. It was a memory that he didn’t recognise. Then he realised that it was one of Venom’s memories. It almost made him gag.

 

“Venom. What the HELL!?”

 

 

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

“Stark, we really should leave. We need to get Wanda checked out, she’s still in shock.” Steve said. Tony didn’t appear to hear him as he kept walking down the corridor, checking every room he came across. “Tony!” He shouted.

 

Tony turned around, one hand flying up to point at Steve. “I am not leaving this base until I find Peter!” he exclaimed. “Even if it’s just a body, I am not leaving” His voice broke on the word body. “I don’t think I can go back to New York empty-handed and look at his aunt and say I failed, okay? I just can’t. The kid doesn’t deserve that.” He looked away, wiping the water collecting in his eyes.

 

“I understand, Tony, but whatever did this, may still be here, and from what we’ve seen, it is incredibly dangerous. If it can take down all these guards and scientists by itself then there is nothing stopping it from taking you down. Then you won’t be helping anyone, especially not the kid” Tony hated how reasonable Steve sounded, he shook his head.

 

“No, I swept the building for life-signs, there’s nothing here. I thought… If I found a body, then at least May gets some closure… no matter how heart-breaking it is, at least she’ll know for sure.” Tony hunched in on himself, “At least I’ll know.” He whispered.

 

Steve sighed, giving him sad puppy eyes. “Maybe there’s something on the files. If not, I’ll come back here with you myself to try and find him. If his body isn’t here, then he might have escaped.”

 

Stark looked at him with wide eyes. “Even after everything I did to you?” he asked.

 

Steve shook his head. “Tony, you did nothing that I can fault you for. I probably would have done the same. That’s why I sent you the phone so that you knew I didn’t blame you and would help you if you asked, and look, here I am.” He stayed silent for a moment.

 

“I know things aren’t the same as they used to be, but I’m hoping we can at least learn how to be friends again. What I did was wrong, I know. I should have told you. I wasn’t entirely truthful about sparing you pain, there’s another reason. I just didn’t know how to tell you, which is no excuse and for that I’m sorry.” He looked down. Stark chuckled to himself.

 

“I guess we both messed up that day, didn’t we?” he said. Then he sighed. “But I’m not going back to the quinjet until I know for sure if Peter’s here or not.” Steve just nodded his head in acceptance.

 

“Then I’ll help. Just let me tell the others to head back so Wanda can get looked at.”

 

 

* * *

 

(POV change)

 

 

Michelle sighed. The search parties had been going on for two weeks now and they had found nothing. Peter was nowhere to be found. There had been a large movement on social media trying to get anyone who may have information on peter to come forward. There had been a few false reports, but overall, there was nothing. It was as if he just dropped off the face of the planet. It frustrated her to no end.

 

The search parties were also losing their numbers as more and more people gave up, believing it to be a lost cause. The only ones who were actively searching were the decathlon team and May.

 

Walking down the street. Michelle lost herself in her thoughts. Peter didn’t deserve whatever had happened to him, he was literally the sweetest and kindest person she had ever met, but she’d deny it if anyone asked her. Sure, he could be a bit flaky, but considering what had happened in these past months, could anyone blame him?

 

This had to be rough on his aunt. First she lost her brother and sister in law who had left their son in their care, then she lost her husband a few months ago, and now Peter had been taken from her? She knew life wasn’t fair, but that was some seriously bad luck. She wasn’t obsessed, just observant. It wasn’t like she was stalking him.

 

She was brought out of her thoughts by seeing a smallish figure go into an alley followed by five older guys. She frowned feeling sorry for the kid, whoever it was, but there was nothing she could do. Maybe she should wait and help them out after the guys were done?

 

She wasn’t waiting long when she heard a ‘SNAP’ followed by a guy crying out in pain. ‘ _That didn’t sound like a kid crying out’_ she thought. Once again, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of many people moving towards the exit of the alley which was soon followed by a low growl that seemed to reverberate in the air around her.

 

Her breath got caught in her throat. The only thing she could liken it to, was the growl of a tiger, but it was much deeper and sounded much more dangerous. The growl was followed by four men running out of the alley as if the devil himself was chasing them.

 

Michelle breathed in and out a few times before peaking her head around the corner of the alley. Aside from the man unconscious on the floor, the alley was empty. There was no sign of the kid in the large black hoody.

 

“What the Hell?” She asked herself.


	7. Chapter 7

Pacing on the rooftop above the alley, Seven questioned Venom.

 

“Seriously, explain what that memory means because right now, I’m freaking out!” He whisper-shouted. He felt the Symbiote shrink away in his mind, leaving him with the impression of a scolded puppy.

 

 ** _‘We’re sorry. It was instinct.”_** The Symbiote said in a morose tone.

 

“INSTINCT!? How is _eating_ someone’s _brain_ instinct!?” Seven was horrified. Sure he’d done some pretty bad things, it came with the territory of being a HYDRA super soldier, but eating someone’s brain was a whole other ball-game. _‘I don’t wanna be a zombie!’_ The young voice was back. Seven didn’t know what a zombie was, but if they ate brains, they couldn’t be good.

 

 ** _‘HYDRA did not feed us while we were captive. Normally there is a substitute that we can have, but we obviously don’t have access to that anymore. Because of that, our primal instincts took over, especially during the fight. We lost control. Please don’t hate us, Little One.’_** Venom’s tone turned pleading at the end. Seven stopped pacing, closing his eyes and running a hand down his face before he spoke.

 

“I don’t hate you, Venom. But you should have told me what happened instead of hiding it.” He sighed. “What was the substitute? Can you tell me?” He asked. Before venom could answer, the all-consuming hunger returned, stopping any further thoughts. It was almost like an out of body experience, there was the feeling of the Symbiote covering his body and his senses muting. He felt his body move without his permission as he started to crawl down the wall.

 

It was strange. His vision seemed to be covered by a red tinge. The unconscious man that had tried to attack them was lit up by a golden glow, shining brighter around his head. They slowly started to crawl towards the prone body along the wall.

 

A female gasp broke them out of their trance. Turning towards the sound, they let out a threatening hiss. The figure was clearly a young girl, but her image was distorted by the red tinge, causing her to look shadowed.

 

Seven felt a strange sense of Deja-Vu, furrowing his eyes in confusion, her form came more into focus. It felt like a punch to the gut, he _knew_ her! Unbidden, he spoke her name, not knowing how he knew it.

 

**“Michelle?”**

* * *

 

POV Change

 

 

Michelle had seen a lot of things living in New York. She thought the alien invasion a few years ago would be the weirdest thing she would ever see. So she was not expecting to see a dark figure crawl down the wall like some possessed creature of the night.

 

It scurried forwards and a gasp escaped her throat. This was obviously a bad idea, as the creature turned towards her, hissing. All she could see were the long white teeth and glaring white eyes. She was frozen in fear, breathing starting to increase. She tried to get her uncooperative legs to move, when the creature frowned, looking even more sinister.

 

 **“Michelle?”** The creature asked, in its deep, rumbling voice. She didn’t know how it knew her name, but it gave her enough motivation to get the Hell out of that alley.

 

She ran all the way back to her apartment, glad that her parents were still at work. She ran around the house closing all the windows and locking them. Heading to her room she checked out the window, making sure the street below was empty before closing and locking it and drawing the curtains closed. She slid down the wall, trying to control her breathing.

 

Crossing her arms over her head, she gathered her thoughts. She had to tell someone, but who? Who would believe her? She would be called crazy and although she liked her moody antisocial reputation and wasn’t eager to get branded as crazy.

 

Maybe she could tell the Avengers? Or rather, what was left of them. Would they believe her? But, wait, they had gone overseas, some sort of huge secret mission, no details had been given to the public. Not even the location of where they went.

 

Who was she kidding? She knew how to get their attention. And she knew who to use to get their attention. Pulling her arms down she reached for her phone.

 

 

 

* * *

 

POV Change

 

 

Ned had become a little obsessed over trying to find Peter. He had his laptop out, running multiple search algorithms. He barely got any sleep, constantly searching social media for any sign of his best friend. He knew his parents were worried about him, but he would not give up. He would find Peter.

 

He nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone buzzed. Turning towards it, he hesitated, looking at his computer screen before reaching for his phone and checking the caller ID. Seeing who it was, he thought for a moment before answering.

 

“Hello?” he said cautiously.

 

“ _I need your help hacking the Avengers.”_ They said bluntly.

 

Ned frowned, pulling the phone away from his ear and re-checking the caller ID “Michelle? Why do you want to hack the Avengers? And how do you even know I can hack?” He asked.

 

“ _Duh, of course I know you can hack, I’m me, I know everything. So? Can you?”_ she demanded impatiently.

 

“Why would I want to hack the Avengers?” he questioned.

 

“ _Look, I… I saw something, okay? And it freaked me the hell out. I really think they need to be informed but no one knows where they are so you need to send the message. I think I saw an alien… or something dangerous and if this is the start of another invasion, then shouldn’t the Avengers be notified? If I went to anyone else they’d think I was crazy. So please, send the message. Or I’ll tell everyone your little secret._

Ned narrowed his eyes. “What secret?” he asked, now on edge.

 

“ _Oh, you know, the one where you told your mom you were going to the library but actually went…”_

 

“Okay! Okay, I’ll help! Just… don’t tell anyone.” He begged.

 

“ _Good. Now, this is what I want you to say_. _”_

 

 

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

The had searched the entire base from top to bottom and there was no sign of Peter anywhere.  

 

“Maybe he wasn’t taken here.” Steve said gently. Tony shook his head, gritting his teeth.

 

“He has to be! We’ve checked every base in Siberia, he has to be here.” He said.

 

“Maybe he was able to escape when whatever happened here happened?” Steve quietly suggested.

 

“Escaped? Escaped where!? If you haven’t noticed, _Cap,_ but there’s nothing around for miles except a frozen wasteland! He would have frozen to death in minutes! The chances of finding him then are close to zero!” Tony exploded.

 

Steve put his hands up in a placating manner. “Alright Tony, calm down. I get that you’re upset, we’re all upset. Everyone wants to see that kid get home safely, okay?”

 

A beeping came from Tony’s Iron Man suit before he could answer. “Boss, the mainframe is being hacked!” F.R.I.D.A.Y exclaimed urgently.

 

“ _What!?_ Did they take anything!?” Tony demanded.

 

“Nothing appears to be compromised or missing, however, the hacker did leave a note. I have sent it to an isolated system in the suit.” She responded.

 

Steve looked at Tony as he pulled up the screen. “What is it?” he asked. Tony looked up at him before replying.

 

“Someone managed to hack my mainframe. They left a note.” They both turned to look at the lines of text.

>Dear Avengers, sorry to hack into your systems, but a friend of mine recently had an encounter that they believe you should be notified about. They claim that they came into contact with either an alien or an incredibly dangerous enhanced in an alley in Queens. They drew a picture of what they saw, which is attached If you could check it out, we’d be very grateful. – A concerned citizen.<

 

“Well, that was not what I was expecting.” Tony said. “I was thinking more along the lines of a ransom.”

 

“Let's check the picture out.” Steve said. When they saw the picture, they had to inhale. It was an artist’s rendering of a nightmarish creature crawling on a wall. There wasn’t much detail as is blended in with the shadows. But what detail the could see made them shudder. It was humanoid in shape but had long fangs that sprouted out of its maw and a long tongue that reminded them of a snake’s, just without the split end. There were claws on the end of each finger that looked deadly.

 

The eyes were startling. They were pure white, but there was a feralness to them that disturbed them greatly.

 

“Jeeze.” Steve whispered. Into the silence that had descended. Tony shook his head. “F.R.I.D.A.Y, search through all the files and see if anything matches this.” He ordered.

 

It took her a few minutes, and Tony honestly thought that she wouldn’t find anything so he was surprised when she announced that she had found a match. Pulling up the information, he swore.

 

Pacing back and forth, he yelled; “How the Hell did that thing get to New York so quickly!?

 

 

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

After regaining control of their body, Seven decided to keep themselves away from the population by traversing the rooftops instead of the streets.

 

“Sooo, before all that happened, you were going to tell me about that substitute?” Seven prompted his roommate.

 

**_‘The chemical we need to feed on is called Phenethylamine on this planet. On our planet, the chemical is harvested out of a plant, but we simply call it the substance.’_ **

****

Seven thought for a moment before the young voice returned. _‘Phenethylamine is found in chocolate. We learned that in Chemistry.’_ Seven decided to use what the voice had told him.

 

“That chemical can be found in Chocolate, a sweet that is made on this planet out of cocoa. If we can get to a sweetshop, then that may be able to help.” He suggested to the Symbiote.

 

Venom thought this over before answering. **_‘It’s worth a try, Little One.’_** So, they now had a direction to go in. They headed further into the city before they came across a closed convenience store.

 

“We can’t go to an open store because we don’t have any money to pay them, so we’re gonna have to take it from this one.” He said looking at the name of the store which said; ‘Delmar’s Deli-grocery’

 

Smashing the window open as quietly as possible, grateful that there was no-one on the street, they slipped in and headed straight to the sweets aisle. The smell of the chocolate was tantalising. They walked almost in a trance as they tried to gather as much chocolate as they could.

 

“Hey, Kid. Those don’t belong to you.” A gravelly voice said from behind them. Dropping the chocolate, they spun around, cursing mentally that someone had managed to sneak up on them.

 

Analysing the man, they concluded that he was dangerous, judging by the number of firearms on his person and the fact that he was covered in blood. Looking down at the chocolate before looking back at the man, they quietly begged;

 

“Please, we’re so hungry.” They decided to make their eyes water while trying not to make direct eye contact with the man, hoping they could manipulate him into leaving them alone.

 

“Chocolate’s not the best thing to get if you’re feeling hungry kid.” The man said with sympathetic eyes. “You should get food from one of those shelters, I hear they’ve got some nice warm burgers there.”

 

This made Venom snap. **“No! We _need_ the chocolate!” **they growled, eyes turning white, causing the man to step back and reach for one of his guns with a swear.

 

Seven pushed Venom down, regaining control, “Please, it’s our only option. We don’t want to hurt innocents because of our hunger.”

 

The man lowered his gun, before looking around the street. “Fine, I’ll get you your chocolate, you won’t have to steal. But in return, you tell me what’s up with the whole demonic possession thing and hurting innocents because you're hungry.” He negotiated.

 

Seven and Venom hesitated, thinking over the man’s offer before nodding. “You tidy up that mess and grab what you need while I pay for this.” The man walked towards the counter of the store and placed a few bills on the counter while Seven picked up as many bars as he could. The man looked at him for a moment before huffing and passing him a plastic bag to put the bars in.

 

“You got a place to stay for the night, kid?” The man asked. Seven shook his head before glaring at the man. “No, we don’t, and I’m not a kid.” This made the man chuckle.

 

“Whatever you say… Kid.” He said. They ended up stopping on the sidewalk when the man said; “I’ve got a place, it’s not much, but I got a couch you can crash on.”

 

Seven looked at the man confusedly, why was he being so nice? “Why? We don’t even know your name.” They asked suspiciously, no one was ever nice to them for no reason. The man shrugged.

 

“You still haven’t told me what’s up with the whole demon thing. And my name’s Frank, kid. Frank Castle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! let me know what you think. Also, thanks again to Patchykins for inspiring this chapter, honestly think this is better than what I originally had planned! Also, let me know if there are any mistakes, I'm very tired right now and I'm not sure I got them all.  
> See you next chapter! :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone. So sorry for not updating yesterday, but I am prone to getting very severe migraines and had a very bad one just before I started writing the chapter so I was unable to finish it :(
> 
> Just to clear up about Frank Castle, this is before Daredevil Se02 because I wanted that season to be set before homecoming - Which excitingly, is taking place in this story (That should be interesting!) also because i wanted to see Peter/Seven/Venom's reaction to that season as it plays out.

Frank studied the kid discretely from the corner of his eye. He did not look healthy, his skin was a grey pallor, he had dark bags under his eyes and his hair was cut into a military fashion. He wasn’t sure what had happened to the kid, but he recognised him from the missing posters. He was not expecting to find said missing kid trying to rob a store for chocolate of all things.

 

Not to mention the whole black veins and white eyes thing. That was some demonic shit and freaked him out. There was no way he wasn’t keeping a gun handy with him around. He would take no chances against an enhanced.

 

Arriving at Frank’s safe house, he unlocked the door and held it open for the kid. The kid looked at him hesitantly with suspicious eyes as if not sure he should cross through the doorway.

 

“C’mon kid, you’ll be fine. Besides, you owe me. I bought your chocolate and you tell me what’s up with the devil on your shoulder, remember?”

 

The kid frowned before going blank-faced, stripping all emotion from his face and walked through the doorway. Frank couldn’t help but think the kid looked like he was walking to his death.

 

Following the kid into the building, he thought the kid would take a seat in the living room but instead, Frank found him standing in the middle of the room, staring blankly at a wall.

 

“Kid, you know you can take a seat, right? I don’t expect you to stand the entire time”

 

The kid looked unsure at this, before heading to the chair opposite him, leaving the table between them. Then, to Franks alarm, the kid pulled out a gun and placed it on the table.

 

“What the hell, kid!” Frank exclaimed. The kid looked at him with empty eyes.

 

 “Standard procedure. A higher up is to be given access to a weapon in case the asset goes rogue.”

 

“…What happened to you, kid?” Frank asked sadly. “Who did this to you?” In his mind, he was asking ‘Who do I need to punish?’

 

 The kid lost some of the emptiness in his eyes and focused back on Frank. He seemed to debate something before speaking.

 

“The only thing _I_ remember is that I was a HYDRA soldier. My memories only go back about a month, but apparently, I’ve been there for most of my life. They would experiment on me when I didn’t perform to their expectations. They said I was created to defeat Captain America and replace the Winter Soldier.”

 

The kid swallowed and blinked back tears. “I don’t even know my own name. I’ve just been calling myself Seven.” He seemed to lose a battle with himself and tears slipped out.

 

Frank felt his parental instincts build up and stood slowly as he came around the table to wrap his arms around the crying teen. He felt the teen stiffen at the action.

 

“W… What are you doing?” the kid asked. Frank closed his eyes. Of course, the kid didn’t know what a hug was. He was definitely gonna kill the HYDRA bastards that thought they could get away with doing this to a kid.

 

“This is a hug kid, people give them to those that need comfort or are just a way of expressing affection” Frank explained. “And right now, I think you need to be comforted.”

 

Slowly the kid relaxed into the hug. After a few moments, Frank released the teen. “I swear to you kid, I’ll kill every last asshole that did this to you.” He promised.

 

The kid huffed out a watery chuckle. “No need for that. We already killed the main one responsible. Though there are probably some that were able to escape before we killed everyone.” Frank sat back, overwhelmed and sad that a _kid_ had to go through everything he had. Something struck him as odd.

 

“Why do you keep switching plurals, kid?”

 

The kid gave him a deadpan look.

 

“Because there’s two of us in here.”                          

 

 

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

Tony had decided to call some drones to search the surrounding area for Peter. As much as he wanted to stay and find his… no, not _his,_ the kid, he had to acknowledge that there was a dangerous alien loose in New York and the only human contact it had were with sadistic HYDRA scientists. If that wasn’t a bad combination he didn’t know what was.

 

He sat in the cockpit of the quinjet that had picked them up, staring blankly out the window. If he was honest, he felt as though he were abandoning Peter, that he was losing his only window to find him.

 

His chest felt tight with the anxiety he felt. He almost jumped out of his skin when Steve placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

“You’ll find him, Tony. I wish the circumstances were different, but there’s an alien on the loose, which probably has hostile intentions towards humans. As much as it pains me to admit it, but you’re making the right choice.”

 

“Am I? Then why does it feel so wrong?”

 

Steve smiled gently “Because, you’re a good man who cares about finding a lost kid, who doesn’t want to see another family ripped apart.”

 

Tony swallowed thickly. “Thanks.” He whispered. Looking back out the window, he saw that they were nearing the Tower.

 

They had decided that the Tower would be a better headquarters if an alien was stalking the streets of New York. Wanda however, would be staying at the compound. She was still in shock and if the rogues were to be found in New York, then at least she would have a head start to escape. Vision was currently with her, he was making sure she would be okay and was the one that would aid her escape if things went wrong.

 

Landing the quinjet, he and Steve quickly made their way inside to meet with the other Avengers. Proceeding to the lounge room they looked at the others, the gravity of the situation weighing heavy on them.

 

Rhodey sat with his face in his hands, head bowed. Sam stood in a corner looking blankly at the floor, it was clear he was still affected by what he saw at the base. Natasha was in her usual blank façade, but those that knew her could see the apprehension in her eyes. Bucky was just a shadow at the back of the room.

 

“What do we do?” Natasha asked the empty room. Tony shook his head, hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. “I don’t know, I really don’t know.”

 

 

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

May sat in her apartment. She hated how quiet it was, normally she would hear Peter moving around, knocking things over. She missed her boy, she missed him so much. She missed his bright smile, the way he would ramble and stutter and the way his eyes would light up when talking about something he loved.

 

She felt numb, she knew she probably looked like hell. She had turned up at work a few days ago, knowing that she had to earn money if she wanted to keep the apartment, but her boss had taken one look at her and sent her home stating she was now on paid leave for as long as she needed.

 

Tears slipped down her cheeks, but she had no energy to wipe them away. Currently, she was sat on Peter’s bed, looking through their family photo book trying to remember the good times.

 

“Oh, Ben. I don’t know if I can do this.” She whispered brokenly.

 

Somewhere in the apartment, her phone rang. She was tempted to ignore it, but the possibility that whoever was on the other side may have information on Peter won her over. She left his room and walked over to the table where her phone rested. She didn’t recognise the number but hesitantly answered.

 

“Hello?” she croaked out.

 

“Hey, is this May Parker?” A gruff voice replied.

 

“Yes, that’s me. Who’s calling?”

 

“My name’s Frank, and I think I found your boy.”

 

May gasped, hand coming up to cover her mouth. “Are you sure?” She had to be certain, she couldn’t take another false lead. The man hummed.

 

“considering he’s passed out on my couch, yeah. Found him wondering on the streets, recognised him from the posters. Got him fed and no he’s passed out on my couch. Ma’am, I have to warn you, this kid’s been through a lot, he said that he can’t remember anything from before a month, he doesn’t even know his own name.”

 

May couldn’t take it as she slumped down onto the couch sobbing. “Oh my baby boy, what’s happened to you?”

 

“I’m sorry ma’am.” The man apologised. “I can arrange a meeting for you two tomorrow if you’d like?” he offered.

 

May quickly nodded before realising the man couldn’t see her. “Yes! Yes, Please! Thank you! Thank you so much, sir!” she exclaimed.

 

“You don’t need to thank me, ma’am, I was a father, I know what it’s like to lose a child. If I could stop that from happening to someone else, you can bet I’d do it.”

 

“Still, Thank you. Where’s the meeting point going to be?” she asked breathlessly.

 

“Do you know where the sky bridge is? We’ll be by the pillars at 12 tomorrow.”

 

“Yes, I know where that is I’ll be there, thank you.”

 

The call ended and May cried a few more tears, but these were tears of happiness. She picked up her phone again and called Tony. He’d wanted to be kept informed if anyone heard or found anything about Peter.

 

“Stark, Someone found him, someone found Peter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now, about the way Peter acted in Frank's safe house, all of the events in the past 24 hours just caught up with him, he's a teenage kid that has been tortured by what he thinks are the only people he knows (Except for May - his life-line) so he was sort of triggered into becoming Asset Seven so that his mind wouldn't completely crumble. right now, he's emotionally exhausted.
> 
> Anyway, hope this chapter is up to par, still struggling slightly with the after-effects of a migraine so it may not be as good as it could be.
> 
> See you next chapter! :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's a chapter to hopefully make up for the last chapter. pretty sure there were loads of mistakes in it that I didn't see due to my migraine. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also, want to thank Patchykins for their amazing ideas and for keeping this story going. another shout-out to WordsAblaze for being so supportive from the very start. Thanks, guys! Also, in general, thank you to everyone who has commented on this fic and left kudos, you've really helped this fic!

The Avengers were plotting their next move when Tony’s phone rang. Taking it out with an apologetic look to everyone, he was about to decline when he saw May’s name on his screen. He sighed heavily, knowing he’d have to tell her that he had stopped looking for her nephew.

 

“I have to take this. It’s Peter’s aunt." The other Avengers gave him looks of understanding as he left the room for privacy.

 

“May, listen, I…”

 

 _“Stark, someone found him, someone found Peter.”_ May Interrupted. Tony was struck mute by her words, unable to breathe for a moment.

 

“W…What?” He managed to choke out.

 

“Someone found him wandering the streets, but Tony… They said he doesn’t remember anything.” He could hear the tears in her voice and why wouldn’t there be? Someone had found the most important person in her life and was able to bring them back together. Something tugged at his mind

 

“What do you mean, ‘he doesn’t remember anything’? As in, he can’t remember what happened to him, who took him?” He questioned.

 

 _“No.”_ May sobbed. _“As in, he doesn’t remember his own name!”_

 

Tony’s whole world screeched to a halt. That sounded familiar, but he didn’t know why. Before he could continue that train of thought, May continued.

 

 _“The person that found Peter has arranged for us to meet tomorrow at the sky bridge in Queens at twelve… if you want… you can come with?”_  She seemed to have pulled herself together somewhat.

 

Tony blinked a few times, surprised that she would offer that. “Yes! Yes, if you’re okay with that, I mean”

 

May chuckled wetly at that _. “Of course I’m okay with it, Tony. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise. I’ll meet up with you at eleven, okay? So we can get some things for Peter when we meet up with him.”_

 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll meet you then.” Tony ended the call and headed back to the meeting room to tell the others what had transpired. There was just one nagging thought that plagued him.

 

How did Peter get back to New York?

 

 

 

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

Frank sighed heavily as he pulled the phone away from his face, looking over at the passed-out form of the kid on his couch he replayed the conversation they’d had a few hours previous.

 

_ Flashback _

_“Because there’s two of us in here.”_

_Frank mulled over what the kid said, trying to work out what the teen meant by that._

_“You mean you have a double personality?” He asked, confused. The kid smirked darkly and snorted slightly._

_“That’s one way to put it” he said taking a large bite out of one of the large bars of chocolate. His eyes became distant before the veins around his eyes turned an inky black and his pupil and iris faded to become pure white._

_“Shit.” Frank cursed and stumbled back out of his chair, reaching for his gun._

_The boy tilted his head in an unnatural way, smirking darkly at Frank’s alarm. **“You have questions?”** the kid asked, his voice distorted which made him sound disturbing and dangerous._

_“What are you? Some sort of demon?”_

**_“Neither. We are a Symbiotic being. The body you see before you is our host.”_ **

****

_“What are you doing here? Are you going to hurt people?” Frank interrogated, bringing the gun up higher._

**_“We do not wish harm upon the innocent. Before we crashed on this planet, we were a bounty hunter for the Nova Corp. We were chasing down a Ravager ship but we didn’t expect them to have a sonic cannon. The blast disorientated us long enough for HYDRA to capture us. That’s where we met this boy. He’s also been tortured by HYDRA and we found a kinship with him and we helped each other to escape.”_ **

****

**_“The only ones that we will harm are ALL those involved with HYDRA.”_ **

****

_ Flashback End _

__

Frank had questioned them both for a few more hours before the exhaustion had caught up with the kid and he had passed out at the table. Frank had decided to move the kid to the couch so that he would be comfier. A small growl had slipped out of the boy’s throat when he picked him up.

 

He was just about to head to his own bed when the kid started thrashing around on the bed, small whines slipping past his lips.

 

Walking briskly towards the kid he reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder to wake him up. It wasn’t necessary, however, as the kid sat up in a panicked frenzy gasping for air. Sweat rolled down his brow as he tried to regain control of his breathing.

 

“Hey kid, it’s okay. You’re safe. No one’s gonna hurt you. I got you.” Frank kept repeating reassurances as he pulled the kid to his chest and wrapped his arms around the smaller body. Looking down he could see black tendrils covering the kid’s body as the Symbiote also tried to comfort the boy.

 

The kid didn’t speak, he just ended up laying back on Frank’s chest until he fell back asleep. Frank resigned himself to a night on the couch, surprisingly, he found that he didn’t care that much. It brought back memories of when he would hug his kids after they had nightmares.

 

 

 

* * *

 

(Time Skip)

 

 

 

It was 11:30 and May had gone to Delmar’s to get Peter’s favourite sandwich. She was a little surprised to see one of the windows smashed and boarded up.

 

“What happened here?” Tony asked from beside her. May shook her head in response.

 

“I’m not sure, but this is Queens. Thugs and thieves break into places all the time around here.” She said sadly. They walked into the shop to speak with Mr Delmar. May smiled at the man as he saw them approach.

 

“Hey Mr Delmar, I’d like to order Peter’s usual, Please.” Mr Delmar’s eyes widened at that.

 

“Does that mean you’ve found him?” He asked hopefully. He’d always been fond of the boy, he liked his optimism and positivity. May smiled gently and happily.

 

“Yeah. Someone found him last night. We’re going to meet up with them now.” Mr Delmar looked past May and saw Tony Stark standing there. His mouth dropped open.

 

"You're..."

 

Yes, I'm Tony Stark. Quick question, what happened to your window?" Mr Delmar blinked a few times at being talked to by a superhero billionaire.

 

"Oh! It was the strangest thing. the window was smashed in and nearly all our chocolate was taken, but there was a large amount of cash that not only covered the chocolate, but there was also enough for us to buy a new window. Anway, good luck to you both. I hope Peter’s okay.”

 

Tony just nodded thoughtfully as May pulled on his arm.

 

They left the shop and joined up with the kids that had joined Ned when they had met up. The kids had been shocked that Tony Stark was joining them. Now they were heading towards the Sky Bridge but soon they heard the sounds of a shouting match. Getting closer they couldn’t believe what they were seeing

 

 

 

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

Seven didn’t know where Frank was leading them. They didn’t feel any danger from him… yet. Which meant that for now… they would trust him.

 

Not long after he had fallen asleep after his nightmare last night, Venom had brought him into a mindscape and they had gone through what powers they had that they did and did not know. They had also started to uncover some of his memories.

 

He now had some vague memories of his childhood, which had proved that HYDRA had lied to him, he had not grown up in the base like they had said.

 

After finding out that he had blocked some of his own memories, he was curious as to why. He wanted to know how he had gotten to that base, how he got his powers, who the woman from his memory was and why he kept dreaming about spiders? The last one confused him to no end.

 

And yet, frustratingly, he still didn’t know his own name. Seven saw that Frank was leading him towards a large sky bridge. That’s when he felt the same shiver go down his spine, the same shiver he’d felt when he was cornered in that alley. Venom and Seven had decided to call it a danger sense, and Frank was the one leading him into danger.

 

Seven stopped in his tracks. He gripped his knives that he’d hidden in his pockets, feeling on edge. He wished he had his gun, but Frank had taken that off him before he’d woken up that morning. Speaking of Frank. He’d turned around to see why they had stopped.

 

“Hey, kid. Why’d you stop?” He asked. Seven looked around cautiously, he was on full alert, looking for anything that didn’t seem right, such as hidden people. One of which he could see was standing on the corner of the street watching them.

 

“Where are we going? Why did you want me to come out here?” He questioned suspiciously. Frank sighed, looking at the kid tiredly.

 

“I found some people that knew you and they wanted to make sure that you were safe and take you home.”

 

Seven panicked at that, remembering what the doctor had said a few days after he had woken up at the base. _‘This is your home now Asset Seven’._

 

“No… This is a trap.” He whispered, but Frank still heard him.

 

“What are you talking about, kid?” The boy looked at him fearfully, shaking his head _._

 

“You’re with them. You’re with HYDRA. Your gonna take us back so that they can take us apart again.”

 

Seven was now looking around frantically, trying to detect any more threats. He ignored Frank trying to assure him that he wasn’t with HYDRA as the danger sense started to ring louder.

 

“We’re not going back! You can’t make us!” He cried out, shoving Frank away so that he stumbled for a few steps.

 

“Son, we need to ask you a few questions.” A voice spoke from behind him. Turning around as fast as he could, he came face to face (Well, more like face to chest) with another man. This man was tall, muscular, wore a blue suit and had a red and blue shield strapped to his arm. _‘Captain America?’_ the young voice questioned.

 

Seven knew who Captain America was. HYDRA had been training him to be able to fight people just like him. They’d given him a serum that had enhanced him just as the serum had enhanced the Captain.

 

They’d given him another serum, but HYDRA hadn’t had the chance to inject him with the trigger for that, so he didn’t know what that serum did.

 

Hearing more people approach, he looked around wildly but only found that he was surrounded.

 

**_‘Little One, this may become a desperate situation.’_ **

****

****

****

* * *

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

Tony, May and the kids regarded the scene with a sense of horror.

 

There was Peter, his hair was cut, he looked pale and was wearing a baggy hoodie with jogging bottoms and combat boots. He was also completely surrounded by the Avengers and looked terrified.

 

Tony marched forwards furiously. “What the hell is going on here!?” he demanded. Steve looked at him and looked down in shame.

 

“I’m sorry Tony, I was outvoted. But listen to what they have to say. I don’t believe it, but we needed to look at every angle.” He said apologetically.

 

“What angle?” Tony asked impatiently. Natasha spoke up then.

 

“The angle that Peter here, was the one to kill all the people at that base, and that he is currently hosting an alien Symbiote.” She said bluntly.

 

Peter’s face scrunched up at that. The panic replaced by confusion as he looked at the assassin. Then he said something that crushed Tony’s heart and caused the kids behind him to gasp.

 

“Who the hell is Peter?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in the last few days, my health took a nasty downturn. also, didn't sleep for 24 hours yesterday. Had to get up at 4:30 AM to make it on time for my hospital appointment and didn't get home til about 9 PM and was then hit by insomnia :(
> 
> Poor Peter/Seven! So much has happened to him in such a short time and there's still about a month to go before the plot of homecoming starts. probably going to bring in some Black Panther characters soon! :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update! Personal life got in the way for a bit.  
> Anyway, this is a late birthday present for WordsAblaze who has been an amazing supporter of this story.

Everyone fell quiet at the teen’s words, not quite sure how to respond. Frank, who’d been a silent observer up until this point responded.

 

“You are, kid. I didn’t tell you until now because it should have come from your aunt rather than a complete stranger.” He finished with a glare at the other Avengers.

 

He decided to leave it up to the kid if he’d tell them about his mental roommate. It wasn’t his problem if the kid didn’t tell them, hell, he wouldn’t trust them if they’d suddenly come out of nowhere and surrounded him. The only reason the kid had trusted him, to some extent, was because he tried to not be threatening and offer the kid another option.

 

The kid, Peter, or Seven, turned to look at Frank, confusion and mistrust were the most obvious emotions in his eyes. Exhaustion was also obvious in his eyes.

 

“Yeah, sorry. Who are you again?” Tony asked.

 

“I’m Frank. I’m the one who found him.”

 

It was at this point that may approached them, drawing Peter/Seven’s attention to her. When he saw her, he tensed up. He felt Venom prepare to emerge to fight their way out. Then he saw her eyes. The same eyes from his memory.

 

“I… I know you, d…don’t I?” He asked, stuttering slightly. May nodded encouragingly, tears gathering in her eyes.

 

“Yes, Sweetie, you do. I’m your aunt, I’m May. I’m so glad we found you.” May finally made her way in front of her nephew and pulled him into a hug. This caused most of the Avengers to tense in anticipation.

 

This proved to be too much for May as she dissolved into sobs, holding him tight as if afraid that he’d disappear if she let go. 

 

It took a moment, but eventually, Peter/Seven melted into the hug. The tension from the past day or so left his system as he started to sag.

 

Unfortunately, Nat had to ruin the moment.

 

“Ma’am, I have to ask you to step away from your nephew.” Peter/Seven’s eye’s widened in apprehension, both he and May tightened their holds on each other. He could feel venom hissing furiously **_‘How dare she! She has no right to demand that! If they try to take this from you, they will face our wrath!’_**

****

May reluctantly let go of her nephew, visibly gathering herself before turning to the assassin. Fury glinting in her eyes. Peter/Seven winced as they vaguely recalled what happened when someone pissed off his aunt.

 

“Excuse me?” She asked in a scarily calm voice. Behind her, Tony was gesturing frantically trying to stop the direction the conversation was taking.

 

Nat seemed to sense that she’d stepped into a minefield, but she stuck to her guns and continued.

 

“I just mean that it’s suspicious that he turns up after we find a base of massacred HYDRA soldiers and at the same time a hostile alien also escapes.” She explained.

 

May folded her arms. “Where’s your proof? Do you have any evidence to support this?” She demanded.

 

For the first time in a long time, Natasha Romanoff was speechless. Normally, people were too scared to talk back to her. She cursed herself for getting complacent.

 

May was normally a patient woman, but when it concerned her nephew, she became a ferocious mother bear.

 

“Well?” She pushed.

 

Natasha looked away, before saying quietly, “The security footage and its backups were destroyed.”

 

Peter/Seven felt the Symbiotes satisfaction leak into his own emotions. He placed a well-practised mask on to stop the emotion from appearing on his face.

 

 ** _‘Good thinking with the camera’s’_** The Symbiote complimented him. _‘Thanks. Now we have plausible deniability.’_ He thought back. It was one of the things that HYDRA had ‘taught’ him, destroy any evidence of his existence so that nothing would lead back to him. It was so that he could remain a secret.

 

 The kids that had remained a safe distance away suddenly decided to come forward.

 

“Yeah, you can’t blame Peter for something you’re not even sure he’s done. Have you even asked him how he got away?” One of them asked. They all seemed so familiar that it made Peter/Seven’s head hurt.

 

The other Avengers looked at each other as if they couldn’t believe that these kids were questioning them. Tony decided this was the time to intervene.

 

“Okay kids, we don’t want to hurt Peter, we just want to make sure he’s okay and that there’s nothing nasty hiding behind the scenes.”

 

One of the girls, the same girl from last night, if they remembered correctly, narrowed her eyes. “What sort of nasty thing?” She demanded.

 

It was the Captain who answered her. “We’re worried that the same thing that happened to a friend of mine, may have happened to Peter.”

 

Nat took this moment to jump in again. “Which is why it would be safest if he came with us.”

 

May, who’d been silently watching the exchange looked back at the assassin. “I’m not leaving him. If you want to take him, then I’m coming with you.”

 

Immediately, all the other teens started to demand to go with her as well, but May put her foot down stating that too many people could overwhelm Peter. With the way Peter looked, they couldn’t argue much and instead argued that May was to keep them updated on what happened. After that, the kids departed, one of them giving Peter/Seven a sad look before turning to follow the rest.

 

May turned back to her nephew and really took in his appearance, he looked so tired and the light he once had in his eyes was somewhat dimmer. She vowed to help him regain that light.

 

Tony turned to look around. Since the Avengers had turned up, the pedestrians had wisely decided to get out of the vicinity. It seemed that the risk to their lives won out over their desires to take selfies. That’s when he noticed.

 

“Hey, where’d that guy go?” He said, looking for any sign of the large man. This caused the other Avengers to look around.

 

“He’s gone.” The Captain said. “We can’t focus on that now. Ross will no doubt have been informed about this, we need to move.” He turned to look at the reunited family.

 

“Ma’am, if you and your nephew could follow us to the quinjet, we can get to the compound with minimal attention.”

 

May frowned but nodded as she followed him with the other Avengers bringing up the rear.

 

 

 

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

Frank smiled slightly from his position a few blocks away as he saw the kid go with his aunt and the Avengers. No doubt about it, the kid was definitely safe now. The kid was now free to make his own decisions without anyone pulling his strings. He only hoped that his roommate wouldn’t act out and give the Avengers a reason to imprison him, the kid had been through enough of that already.

 

Although, he suspected that his aunt would not put up with that. She definitely reminded him of a fearsome mother bear.

 

 

 

(Time Skip)

 

 

 

It had been an awkward ride to the compound, Peter/Seven had seemingly remained completely silent. The other Avengers had tried to start up small conversations but stopped when Peter/Seven didn’t answer them.

 

May sat with him, arms wrapped around his body, one hand running through his hair soothingly. While he may have appeared to be silent outside, he was in deep discussion with venom on the inside.

 

 _‘Won’t they notice you if they run tests?’_ Peter/Seven asked worriedly.

 

 ** _‘Don’t worry Little One, we can hide ourselves from tests… We had plenty of practice while we were at HYDRA.’_** They finished off sadly. Peter/Seven flinched mentally, berating himself for bringing up bad memories.

 

 ** _‘Hush, Little One. It’s not your fault. You should rest, you haven’t properly rested since before we escaped.’_** Venom said, soothingly. **_‘Sleep, we should be fine. Your family member won’t let anything happen to us.’_**

****

Peter/Seven was startled, the realisation that he actually had a family that cared for him hit him hard. He wasn’t sure what had happened to his parents only that at some point they had been there and then not.

 

He allowed his aunt, and wow, it felt weird saying that, to soothe him into a deep sleep.

 

 

 

(POV Change)

 

 

 

May felt when Peter fell asleep against her, causing her to smile slightly. She remembered when Peter was younger and they’d cuddle up on the couch and watch old Sci-Fi films together with Ben. She longed for those days to come back.

 

The quinjet landed on the landing pad of the compound with the smallest of jolts, Peter didn’t even stir from his slumber.

 

Steve approached the small family cautiously, hands up in a gesture of peace.

 

“We’ve arrived. I get that you don’t want to wake him up, but if it’s okay, I can carry him?”  

 

May looked at him suspiciously, assessing him. She must’ve seen something because slowly nodded. Steve reached down and carefully lifted the sleeping teen into his arms. It was a testament to how tired the kid was because not a peep left him.

 

Steve quickly, but carefully carried Peter into the med bay and placed him onto a bed where Tony immediately set about inserting IV drips and other monitoring equipment. When the other Avengers looked at him with shock he just shrugged.

 

“After spending so much around Bruce, I picked up some stuff.” He explained.

 

After a while, the other Avengers filtered out of the room leaving only May and Tony in the room.

 

“When he wakes up, there’s someone that I think he needs to talk to if Cap’s right about HYDRA doing the same stuff to Peter that they did to him.” Tony said softly to May. “We also need to test if there is an alien parasite in him. If there is, who knows what it could be doing to him.”

 

May sighed softly. “Just… Just wait until he wakes up and I’ve had a proper talk to him. I haven’t seen him in nearly a month, Tony. I still can’t believe he’s here. I’m afraid that if I look away or leave, he’s going to disappear.”

 

Tony nodded. “Okay. I’ll keep the others off your back. He’s your nephew, you’re his guardian so we can’t do anything without running it by you first. I’ll make sure everyone understands that.”

 

He looked at May, she looked almost as tired as her nephew as she held on to his lax hand. He sighed and rubbed a tired hand over his face.

 

“God, I wish Bruce were here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there wasn't any action in this chapter, but there will be plenty of drama. In order for the plot of this story to progress, Thor: Ragnarok will take place much sooner than it did in canon.  
> Hope you liked this chapter, See you in the next! :)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY! I know I've been gone for a while, but I have my reasons (yes, more than one). the first reason that I had to stop was that I had to do a Supplementary exam for one of my courses in University, so I needed to put all my effort into revising for it. 
> 
> The second reason is that my mental health took a bit of a plunge, don't worry, I'm seeing a psychologist monthly, but it's been an ongoing problem that for the last year or so, has been getting worse and right now, I'm going through evaluations. 
> 
> Also Uni started back up, which took up most of my time (Seriously, 4 assignments due in 2 months, 2 of them due a week apart) and left me seriously exhausted. With the christmas holidays I only have a bit of time as I was assigned another 2 assignments and I also have exams in a few weeks. 
> 
> Anyway, Sorry once again, and I hope you enjoy this chapter, it was probably the hardest one to write so I'm not entirely sure if its the best. Side note: Guess who saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse In 3D?

May stared at her nephew’s face, not quite believing he was right there in front of her. It had been a hectic few weeks and she was so glad that it was over, that Peter was here, that they were both nearly home. Seeing his eyes start to flutter, she sat up a bit. His eyes honed in on her presence immediately and her heart jumped, still not used to seeing the emptiness and bear recognition in them, but it was better than never seeing them again.

 

“Hey, sweetie. You fell asleep on the flight over. You’re in the Avengers med-bay.” She reassured the nervous teen.

 

He settled down slightly, relieved that he was not back in a HYDRA compound. “The Avengers?” He questioned. “Where are they?”

 

May smiled slightly. “They’re giving us some time to talk, to let me explain what’s going to happen next” That, set the pair on edge. **_‘Little One, are you sure these people are not like HYDRA?’_** Venom questioned. _‘I’m not entirely sure anymore.’_ He replied.

 

“Don’t worry!” May exclaimed, seeing the look of trepidation in her nephew’s face. “It’s nothing bad, they just want to do a few check-ups to make sure you’re healthy, and perhaps a few scans to see what’s causing the amnesia.”

 

Peter/Seven hunched up on the bed, drawing his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. “There won’t be any injections, will there?” He croaked. May looked sympathetically at her nephew.

 

“They may take some blood, but they won’t inject you with anything, I won’t let them, okay? If you don’t want them to do that then they won’t. I promise.”

 

Relieved that they had someone else in their corner Peter/Seven and Venom relaxed. Which is of course, when the med-bay doors opened.

 

 

**(POV change)**

 

 

The Avengers gathered around one of the tables in the compound. They had all met back up with Wanda, Vision and Bucky who were also present at the meeting.

 

“How’s the kid?” Bucky asked with a rough voice. Tony, sitting in one of the chairs ran his hands down his face. “Ah, Sleeping. Last I checked anyway. The guy that found him said that the kid has no memories at all.” He sighed.

 

Bucky and Steve looked at each other, with an uncomfortable understanding. “Like what happened with Bucky?” Steve asked carefully.

 

Everyone froze at that. Tony stared blankly at nothing before abruptly standing up and pacing. “Dammit. I knew I was forgetting something!” He angrily clenched his fists before throwing himself back down into his chair. Looking back at the Super Soldiers with a seriousness that was starting to become regular.

 

“I need you two to tell me everything you know about HYDRA’s Super Soldier programme. Don’t leave anything out. We don’t know how far they got in… programming… Peter.”

 

The others looked down at that. It was hard to imagine a kid going full killer like the Winter Soldier. “I hate to be the one to say it, but, should the kid’s aunt be in there if he could go full psychopath at any time?” Sam said.

 

Nat raised her eyebrows “Maybe we should head over there to make sure nothing happens.” Sam raised his eyebrows. “’We’? You just don’t want to face his Aunt again. I’ve never seen anyone render you speechless like that before.” He grinned. That grin was quickly wiped off his face at the death glare sent his way by the irate assassin.

 

“I’ll go over, since the kid and his Aunt already know me and aren’t as likely to rip my throat out.” Tony said as he started walking towards the med bay. The other Avengers watched him leave.

 

“Drama Queen” Sam muttered.

 

 

* * *

**(Location Change)**

 

 

The Milano docked in one of the Nova Corp landing pads. They had received a message from the Nova-Prime; Irani Rael, that requested they return to Xandar.

 

“OK team. Best behaviour while we’re here. We don’t need the Nova Corp on our asses again.” Peter Quill instructed.

 

“We know, Jackass. You’ve said that like ten times now.” Rocket complained. “I need to when it concerns you, considering you try to steal anything that catches your fancy and besides, I didn’t say it that many times. Did I?” He turned his question to Gamora. Unfortunately, she, Drax and Mantis both nodded their heads. Groot continued playing his game, not paying attention.

 

“Really?” Peter asked mostly to himself as his team had continued walking without him. “Hey, wait up!”

 

 

**(Time Skip)**

 

 

 

“So, what did you need from us, Nova-Prime?” Gamora politely asked. The commander of the Nova Corps sighed heavily and frowned with concern.

 

“We received a request for help… From Klyntar.” She answered carefully, watching their reactions. All except from Gamora looked confused, instead she inhaled sharply.

 

“It’s not like them to reach out for help.” She commentated “They typically keep to themselves.”

 

Rael nodded and gestured for one of the technicians to bring up a hologram of a grey planet. “Let us enlighten your colleagues. This is the planet Klyntar, the home planet of a race of beings commonly referred to as Symbiotes. They are unable to survive without a host and typically do not leave their host until it or the hosts death. They have a militaristic culture and many Symbiotes choose to join their army although some do crave to travel and so, become bounty hunters. Even though they may leave, the Symbiotes stay in contact with the Hive Mind.”

 

Rael sighed and stepped back a few paces. “The reason they contacted us is that one of their bounty hunters fell silent a few months ago.”

 

Rocket scoffed “Doesn’t that just mean they’re dead? Why do you need us?” Drax and Mantis both tilted their heads eerily in synch in agreement.

 

“Not apparently. They reported that they can still feel this Symbiotes life force, they just can’t contact them.”

 

“Yeah, I still don’t see what this has to us.” Rocket complained. Gamora flicked his ear and glared at him. Peter shrugged, “He kinda has a point. What do you need us for?”

 

Rael smiled patiently. “We managed to locate where the Symbiote is, and what better person to retrieve the wayward Symbiote on Terra, than a Terran?”  

 

 

 

* * *

**(Back at the compound)**

 

Peter/Seven and May looked up to see Tony enter. “Hey, kid. How’re you doing?” He asked, smiling slightly.

 

Peter/Seven looked towards his Aunt before looking back and shrugging. “Alright, I guess. Less tired.”

 

Tony nodded. “That’s good… Soo… How much do you remember?”

 

Peter/Seven frowned, thinking back. “I remember waking up in my room in the Compound and the doctor coming in and saying there had been a training accident which wiped my memories. They then took me to a room where they started teaching me how to fight and how to be stealthy.”

 

 _‘Should I tell them about the missions? They may hurt me if they know what I did. Also, I’m not sure if I trust them.’_ Peter/Seven asked Venom. He could feel the Symbiote considering their answer before replying.

 

**_‘It is up to you Little One. Don’t tell them if you don’t trust them. If your instincts are saying not to tell them then listen to them, they tend to be accurate.’_ **

****

Peter/Seven mentally thanked them and continued with his story. “A few days ago, an Alarm went off and my door malfunctioned so that it opened. I snuck out and stole one of their jets and set the course for New York at random. Although I’m wondering if it was repressed memories that lead me to choose it.”

 

May frowned “What did you do with the jet?” she questioned. “I stashed it outside of the city in a forest-y area... Was I not meant to do that?”

 

May covered a smile as Tony sighed good naturedly “Don’t worry, it’s fine Pete. Ill recall the drones and send them out to the outskirts of the city to find it.”

 

Tony frowned at what he had to talk about next. “I know you’re probably going to be uncomfortable with this, but we’ve got to do a few tests, just to make sure HYDRA didn’t leave anything nasty behind.”

 

Peter/Seven looked back at his Aunt who nodded encouragingly. “No injections.” He agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my first fanfiction! Any feedback is welcome as are plot ideas. I have a few chapters already plotted out but any help would be greatly appreciated! The German is from Google Translate so I don't know if it's accurate or not. The second chapter hopefully won't be too long, eventually, I'll sort out a schedule. Should be easier now I'm on summer break! :)


End file.
